Vaiva Lesauskaite

Lithuanian University of Health Sciences | LSMU · Institute of Cardiology

The effectiveness of lipid-lowering therapies may be insufficient in high-risk cardiovascular patients and depends on the genetic variability of drug-metabolizing enzymes. Customizing statin therapy, including treatment with atorvastatin, may improve clinical outcomes. Currently, there is a lack of guidelines allowing the prediction of the therapeu...

The study presents data on the anti-inflammatory effects of a combination of sodium dichloroacetate and sodium valproate (DCA–VPA) on the expression of inflammation- and immune response-related genes in T lymphocytes of SARS-CoV-2 patients. The study aimed to assess the effects of DCA–VPA on the genes of cytokine activity, chemokine-mediated signal...

Background: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the most prevalent type of cardiovascular disease. The main cause of IHD is atherosclerosis, which is a multifactorial inflammatory disease of blood vessels. Studies show that bacteria might have a significant impact on the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and plaque rupture. This study aimed to evaluate t...

Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the effect of ABCB1 genetic polymorphism and renal function on the occurrence of ticagrelor-related dyspnea. Patients and Methods A total of 299 patients with acute with type 1, 2, or 3 myocardial infarction (with and without ST-segment elevation), who underwent coronary angiography and PTCA with sten...

The research presents data from a preclinical study on the anti-inflammatory effects of a sodium dichloroacetate and sodium valproate combination (DCA–VPA). The 2-week treatment with a DCA 100 mg/kg/day and VPA 150 mg/kg/day combination solution in drinking water’s effects on the thymus weight, its cortex/medulla ratio, Hassall’s corpuscles (HCs) n...

In this study, we reveal the influence of low-frequency ultrasound on erythrocyte and platelet aggregation. Furthermore, we show that the consequences of sonication of blood samples can be predicted using machine learning techniques based on a set of explicit parameters. A total of 300 blood samples were exposed to low-frequency ultrasound of varyi...

Although major pathogenesis mechanisms of heart failure (HF) are well established, the significance of early (mal)adaptive structural changes of cardiomyocytes preceding symptomatic ischemic HF remains ambiguous. The aim of this study is to present the morphological characterization of changes in cardiomyocytes and their reorganization of intermedi...

Background/objectives: To investigate the associations between ophthalmic parameters, CYP4F2 (rs2108622) and ABCA1 (rs1883025) polymorphisms and coronary artery disease, considering the accessibility, non-invasive origin of retinal examination and its possible resemblance to coronary arteries. Subjects/methods: Overall 165 participants divided i...

Late-life depression (LLD) is a multifactorial disorder, with susceptibility and vulnerability potentially influenced by gene-environment interaction. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism is associated with LLD. The sample of 353 participants aged 65 years and over was randomly selected from the list of Kaunas...

Evaluating the effectiveness of PLGA nanoparticles with curcumin (PLGA-curcumin) in preserving primary cardiomyocyte culture viability and functionality after I/R injury

Background/Objectives. To investigate the associations between ophthalmic parameters, CYP4F2 (rs2108622) and ABCA1 (rs1883025) polymorphisms and coronary artery disease, considering the accessibility, non-invasive origin of retinal examination and its possible resemblance to coronary arteries. Subjects/Methods. 165 participants divided into groups...

Background: The NR3C2 gene encodes the mineralocorticoid receptor, which is present on cardiomyocytes. Prior studies reported an association between the presence of NR3C2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and an increased cortisol production during a stress response such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which may lead to adverse cardiac...

Background Ticagrelor is a first drug of a new chemical class cyclopentyltriazolopyrimidines and a third-generation P2Y12 inhibitor that targets and directly binds platelet P2Y12 receptors. It is recommended to be given as a dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with aspirin for the prevention of thrombotic events and the following ischemic heart diseas...

Aims: This study sought to examine the feasibility, accuracy and reproducibility of a novel, fully automated 2D transthoracic echocardiography (2D TTE) parasternal long axis (PLAX) view aortic measurements quantification software compared to board-certified cardiologists in controlled clinical setting. Methods and results: Aortic Annulus (AoA),...

(1) Background: The aim of this study was to determine clinical and genetic factors predicting the development of dyspnea in patients receiving ticagrelor. (2) Methods: A total of 277 patients with acute myocardial infarction (with and without ST-segment elevation), who underwent coronary angiography and PTCA with stent implantation and treated wit...

Introduction Left atrial (LA) size is a dynamic variable that changes during stress echocardiography (SE) and provides valuable information within and beyond coronary artery disease. However, its measurement remains subjective, time-consuming and based on manual tracings. Recent advances in deep learning might save analysis time and deflate variabi...

In this study, pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase-1 inhibition with dichloroacetate (DCA) was explored as an alternative cancer therapy. The study’s aim was to compare the effectiveness of NaDCA and MgDCA on pediatric glioblastoma PBT24 and SF8628 tumors and cells. The treatment effects were evaluated on xenografts growth on a chicken embryo chorioallan...

Here, we report the emergence of the variant lineage B.1.1.523 that contains a set of mutations including 156_158del, E484K and S494P in the spike protein. E484K and S494P are known to significantly reduce SARS-CoV-2 neutralization by convalescent and vaccinated sera and are considered as mutations of concern. Lineage B.1.1.523 presumably originate...

SARS-CoV-2 has spread vastly throughout the word. In this study, we focus on the patterns of spread in Lithuania. By analysing the genetically sequenced data of different lineages and their first appearances, we were able to compare the dynamics of spreading of the lineages and recognize the main possible cause. The impact of emigration patterns an...

Sex differences identified in the COVID-19 pandemic are necessary to study. It is essential to investigate the efficacy of the drugs in clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19, and to analyse the sex-related beneficial and adverse effects. The histone deacetylase inhibitor valproic acid (VPA) is a potential drug that could be adapted to preve...

Aims: The goals of this study were to develop a new technique that could pave the way for a quicker determination of CYP4F2 rs3093135 and CYP2C19 rs4244285 variants directly from a patient’s blood and to attempt to apply this technique in clinical practice. Patients & methods: The study included 144 consecutive patients admitted with ST elevation m...

Background: Evidence shows that microRNAs (miRNAs) could play a key role in the homeostasis and development of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. The present study is aimed at investigating the changes in circulating miRNA expression profiles in a plasma of patients suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (...

Background Antiplatelet drugs, such as ticagrelor, which target platelet P2Y12 receptors, are used for prevention of ischemic heart disease. Ticagrelor is also known to have pleiotropic effects of unknown mechanisms. Ticagrelor could influence the expression of molecules involved in resolution of inflammation. This study aimed to investigate if tic...

Here we report the emergence of variant lineage B.1.1.523 that contains a set of mutations including 156_158del, E484K and S494P in Spike protein. E484K and S494P are known to significantly reduce SARS-CoV-2 neutralization by convalescent and vaccinee sera and are considered as mutations of concern. Lineage B.1.1.523 has presumably originated in Ru...

Interindividual variabilities between patients taking the anticoagulant rivaroxaban are a result of hepatic metabolism by CYP 450 enzymes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of rivaroxaban on CYP4F2 and transcription factors’ activity in HUVECs. Rivaroxaban and its metabolites were detected by UPLC-ESI-MS and UPLC-QTOF-MS. CYP4F...

Distinct SARS-CoV-2 lineages, discovered through various genomic surveillance initiatives, have emerged during the pandemic following unprecedented reductions in worldwide human mobility. We here describe a SARS-CoV-2 lineage - designated B.1.620 - discovered in Lithuania and carrying many mutations and deletions in the spike protein shared with wi...

MC4R, LEP, and LEPR genes are involved in the hypothalamic leptin-melanocortin regulation pathway, which is important for energy homeostasis. Our study aimed to evaluate the associations between the MC4R rs17782313, LEP rs7799039, and LEPR rs1137101 polymorphisms with obesity-related parameters in childhood and adulthood. The data were obtained fro...

Background and Objectives: Serum cortisol has been extensively studied for its role during acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Reports have been inconsistent, with high and low serum cortisol associated with various clinical outcomes. Several publications claim to have developed methods to evaluate cortisol activity by using elements of complete blo...

Many high-income countries have met the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with overwhelming sequencing resources and have identified numerous distinct lineages, including some with notably altered biology. Over a year into the pandemic following unprecedented reductions in worldwide human mobility, distinct introduced lineages of SARS-CoV-2 without sequenced ant...

Objective To determine the association of genetic variants rs7901695, rs7903146, rs7895340, rs11196205, rs12255372 of transcription factor 7 like 2 (TCF7L2) gene and its coherence with metabolic parameters in Lithuanian (Kaunas district) women population with previously diagnosed gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and to compare the prevalence of...

Materials and methods: Relative expression of lncRNAs CARMN, LUCAT1, SMILR, and MALAT1 was tested in clinical aortic tissue and blood plasma samples from TAA and non-TAA patients using the qRT-PCR method. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare ΔCt values between the study groups. ROC curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic val...

Antiplatelet drugs are prescribed without considering the diabetic status of the patient. The objective of the current investigation was to determine the impact of clinical factors, CYP4F2 enzyme and 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) concentrations on high on-treatment platelet reactivity in patients with diabetes treated with antiplatelet...

Ankylosing spondyloarthritis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease, strongly related to human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27. Cardiac involvement in AS manifests in 2 to 10% of patients as aortic insufficiency, aortitis, mitral valve fibrosis, or disturbance in the conduction of the heart. In this article, we present a case of a 49-year-old...

Background/aim: The matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) play an important role in the physiological and pathological remodeling of tissues including carcinogenesis. The study's aim was to assess the relations between MMP-2(-735C/T), MMP-2(-1306C/T), MMP-9(-1562C/T), and MMP-3(-11715A/6A) polymorphisms, and clinical/morphological manifestation of laryn...

Purpose: To find an association of relative expression of hsa-miR-24-3p and hsa-miR-34a-5p molecules and CYP4F2 enzyme activity in blood plasma of stable angina pectoris (AP) patients'. Materials and Methods: MiRNA gene expression analysis was performed on total RNA extracted from blood plasma, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are critical regulators of the functional pathways involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Understanding of the disease-associated alterations in tissue and plasma will elucidate the roles of miRNA in modulation of gene expression throughout development of sporadic non-syndromic ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm...

Objective: The NKCC1 is a recognized tumorigenesis marker as it is important for tumor cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and tumor progression. The study aim was to investigate the effect of sodium valproate (VPA) on thymus NKCC1 RNA expression. Material and methods: Wistar rats, age 4 to 5 weeks, were investigated in the control a...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of ADM genetic variant and HBP among Lithuanian adolescents aged 12–15 years. This is a cross-sectional study of a randomly selected sample of 675 12–15-years-old schoolchildren who were surveyed during November 2010 to April 2012 in the baseline survey. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of A...

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the impact of genetic and nongenetic factors on treatment outcomes in patients receiving dual antiplatelet therapy after percutaneous coronary intervention and stent implantation. Materials & methods: Patients (n = 628) used clopidogrel or ticagrelor for at least 1 week before platelet aggregation test. R...

The aim was to investigate the effect of dichloroacetate (DCA) on thymus weight, Hassall’s corpuscle number (HCs), and NKCC1 RNA expression in Wistar rats aged 4–5 weeks. They were investigated in the controls and DCA-treated gonad-intact and castrated males and females. The treatment lasted 4 weeks with DCA 200 mg/kg/day. At the end of the experim...

The CYP4F2 gene is known to influence mean coumarin dose. The aim of the present study was to undertake a meta‐analysis at individual patients’ level to capture the possible effect of ethnicity, gene‐gene interaction or other drugs on the association and to verify if inclusion of CYP4F2*3 variant into dosing algorithms improves the prediction of me...

The study objective was to investigate a possible sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) pharmacological mechanism causing an increase in diuresis in rats. The aim was to define characteristics of 24-hour urinary Na⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ excretion in Wistar male rats and to evaluate effect of a single-dose DCA and repeated DCA dosage on diuresis. Six con...

Objectives Recently, genome-wide associated studies have identified several genetic loci that are associated with elevated blood pressure and could play a critical role in intracellular calcium homeostasis. The aim of this study was to assess the associations of ATP2B1 rs2681472 and CACNB2 rs12258967 gene polymorphisms with high blood pressure (HBP...

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of incurable visual impairment in the developed countries. The main pathological change in AMD is the formation of drusen containing 40% of lipids, dominated by esterified cholesterol (EC) and phosphatidylcholine (PC), and protein. Haplotype ε4 of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ac...

Purpose: For long time, blood clot retraction was measured only by thromboelastographic or platelet contractile force measurement techniques. The purpose of the present study was development of a novel ultrasonic method based on simultaneous monitoring of variations in the ultrasound velocity and the frequency spectrum of the signal propagating in...

Background: Dilatative pathology of the ascending thoracic aorta (DPATA) is characterized by the aortic wall expansion more than 1.5 and could be accompanied by aortic wall rupture. Mutations of TGFBR2 gene demonstrated an association with syndromic DPATA and altered pathway of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β). Elevated TGF-β1 level has bee...

Introduction To evaluate the influence of traditional risk factors of ischaemic heart disease and genetic factors to predict different types of acute coronary syndromes. Materials and methods Five hundred and twenty-three patients with acute coronary syndromes (393 with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and 130 with non-ST elevation myoca...

● AIM: To examine the MMP-2 (-1306 C/T) gene polymorphism and the phenotype characterized by soft and hard drusen of early age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and geographic atrophy of late AMD form. ● METHODS: The study enrolled 850 investigations (290 AMD patients with soft and hard drusen, 34 with geographic atrophy and a random sample of the...

Abstract Background Epidemiological studies have demonstrated the influence of environmental factors on HBP in the population of Lithuanian children, although the role of genetic factors in hypertension has not yet been studied. The aim of this study was to assess the distribution of AGTR1, AGT, and ACE genotypes in the Lithuanian child population...

: The aim of the current study was to evaluate the impact of CYP2C192 (rs4244285), CYP4F23 (rs2108622), and nongenetic factors on platelet aggregation and to investigate the mechanism of CYP4F2's effect on platelet aggregation in the patients treated with dual antiplatelet therapy. A total of 146 patients were included in this study. Ticagrelor or...

Aim: To determine clinically significant factors which may alter the effect of dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and ticagrelor or clopidogrel in patients who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention and stent implantation. Materials & methods: The study included 378 patients. All the patients had undergone percutaneous coronary int...

Literature data support evidences that glioblastoma (GBM) patients experience prolonged survival due to sodium valproate (NaVP) treatment. The study assessed the human GBM cell U87 xenograft studied in the chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model evaluating NaVP effect on tumor. Three groups of tumors (each n = 10) were studied: nontreat...

Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of mortality and morbidity in most populations. As the traditional modifiable risk factors (smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and obesity) were defined decades ago, we decided to analyze recent data in patients who survived acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The Czech part of the s...

Deregulation of miRNAs has been observed virtually in all major types of cancer, whereas the miRNA signature in GIST is not well characterized yet. In this study the first high-throughput miRNA profiling of 15 paired GIST and adjacent normal tissue samples was performed using small RNA-seq approach and differentially expressed miRNAs as well as iso...

Background Two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography is one of the most feasible, noninvasive methods for assessing the aortic diameter and biomechanical changes. We studied possible interfaces between noninvasive biomechanical and speckle-tracking (ST) echocardiographic data from dilated aortas. Methods Altogether, 44 patients with dilative pathology...

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), a progressive retinal disease, is responsible for an impaired central vision in about 180 million people worldwide. Current options for ARMD prevention and treatment are limited due to an incomplete understanding of disease etiopathogenesis. We aimed to test the hypothesis that the single nucleo...

We present two clinical cases of acute and subacute coronary artery stent thrombosis in patients treated at the Department of Interventional Cardiology in Aktobe, Kazakhstan. Our results draw attention to the impact of CYP3A4∗1B on the clinical effect of clopidogrel during dual antiplatelet therapy after PCI. The genotyping performed at the Laborat...

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the associations between the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene rs9939609 variant with obesity and metabolic syndrome and interactions between FTO alleles, dietary intake and physical activity in Lithuanian adult population. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: A health survey was carrie...

To determine if the frequency of the MMP-2 (-1306 C/T) genotype has an influence on the development of early age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The study enrolled 387 patients with early AMD and a random sample of 682 healthy persons (control group). The genotyping of MMP-2 (-1306 C/T) was carried out using the real-time polymerase chain react...

Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) is a cytokine that participates in a broad range of cellular regulatory processes and is associated with various diseases including aortic aneurysm. Increased TGF-β1 levels are linked to Marfan syndrome (MFS) caused by fibrillin1 (FBN1) mutations and subsequent defects in signaling system. FBN1 single nucleoti...

Objective. Data on the impact of PAI-1-675 4G/5G genotype for fibrinolysis during myocardial infarction are inconsistent. The aim of our study was to evaluate the association of clinical and genetic (PAI-1-675 4G/5G polymorphism) factors with coronary artery occlusion in patients with myocardial infarction. Materials and Methods. PAI-1-675 4G/5G de...

Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF- β1) is a cytokine that participates in a broad range of cellular regulatory processes and is associated with various diseases including aortic aneurysm. Increased TGF- β1 levels are associated with Marfan syndrome (MFS) caused by FBN1 mutations and subsequent defects in signaling system. We studied TGF- β1 levels...

Objective: Aorta dilatation is the most frequent ascending aorta pathology and a risk factor for dissection. The arterial hypertension is the most common reason for dilatation of ascending aorta. One of the most feasible methods for the diagnosis of this pathology is 2D echocardiography. We hypothesized that speckle-tracking echocardiography can he...

The aim of this study was to investigate expression profile of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9) in glottic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and benign vocal fold lesions (BVFLs) and to correlate it with clinical and pathological features. The immunohistochemical expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 was investigated in specimens taken from 217 pati...

To determine the main clinical and genetic factors having impact on early coronary stent thrombosis. Genotyping of CYP2C19*2, *17 and CYP4F2*3 in patients with (n = 31) and without stent thrombosis (n = 456) was performed. Clinical and genetic data were analyzed by binary logistic regression. Smoking (OR: 0.317; 95% CI: 0.131-0.767), high-density l...

To investigate polymorphisms of the fibrillin-1 (FBN1) gene (namely, rs2118181, rs1036477, rs10519177, rs755251 and rs4774517) in a case-control study for dilatative pathology of the ascending thoracic aorta (DPATA) from Lithuanians. We studied 312 patients who had undergone aortic reconstructive surgery for DPATA. These patients were sub-divided a...

Background The roots of adult hypertension go back to childhood. This study aimed to examine the independent effects of physical, behavioural and genetic factors identified in childhood and mid-adulthood for prediction of adult hypertension. Methods The study subjects were participants of the Kaunas Cardiovascular Risk Cohort study started in 1977...

Exposure to cadmium (Cd) is known to alter immune responses. Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Harms (AS) extract, an antioxidant-containing complex of phenolic compounds, tetracyclic triterpenoids/steroids, and polysaccharides, is known to produce Cd mobilization and excretion in vivo. Building upon earlier findings, the aim of the study w...

Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel is used to lower the risk of arterial thrombosis. However, this strategy is not always successful owing to high interindividual variability in response to antiplatelet therapy. To evaluate an impact of CYP2C19 G681A and CYP4F2 G1347A polymorphisms and clinical factors on dual antiplatelet effec...

Abstract Background: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) are responsible for the degradation of extracellular matrix components and play an important role in the physiological and pathological remodeling of tissues. Purpose: To assess the impact of MMP-2 Rs2285053 (C -> T), MMP-3 Rs3025039 (5A -> 6A), and MMP-9 Rs3918242 (C -> T) single nucleotide poly...

Background: Dyslipidemia is one of several known risk factors for coronary heart disease, a leading cause of death in Lithuania. Blood lipid levels are influenced by multiple genetic and environmental factors. Epidemiological studies demonstrated the impact of nutrition on lipid levels within the Lithuanian population although the role of genetic...

The dosage of warfarin is restricted due to its narrow therapeutic index, so, the required dose must be adapted individually to each patient. Variations in warfarin dosage are influenced by genetic factors, the changes in patient diet, anthropometric and clinical parameters. To determine whether VKORC1 G3730A and CYP4F2 G1347A genotypes contribute...

Mutation in SCARB1 gene, exon 8 rs5888, has been associated with altered lipid levels and cardiovascular risk in humans though the results have been inconsistent. We analysed the impact of SCARB1 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs5888 with plasma lipid profile and association with coronary artery disease (CAD) in a Lithuanian population charac...

Introduction: The development of left ventricular remodelling after acute myocardial infarction is a predictor of heart failure and mortality. The purpose of the present study was to assess whether the polymorphism of angiotensinogen (AGT) gene with threonine (T) instead of methionine (M) at amino acid 235 in exon 2 (M235T) had effects on cardiac...

The inherited macular dystrophies are characterized by different grade central visual loss and different character macula atrophy, because of retinal pigment epithelium lesion. The cause of photoreceptors degeneration is still not known. In this article, we review subjective and objective ophthalmological examines essential to diagnosis and differe...

Objective: The aim of our study was to determine if the genotype of the matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) gene might carry the risk of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) in patients with myocardial infarction. Material and methods: A total of 499 patients with an acute myocardial infarction or with a history of myocardial infarction were e...

Recent studies have shown that, after heart valve surgery, patients may require a more precise warfarin dosage than their non-surgical counterparts. The study aim was to analyze the influence of certain clinical factors and CYP2C9 and VKORC1 gene polymorphisms on the efficacy of initiation of warfarin treatment in patients after cardiac valve surge...

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism is associated with lipid levels. Some studies have reported that blood lipid response to diet or obesity varies depending on APOE genotypes. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of APOE genotypes, the intake of saturated fatty acids (SFA), and obesity on serum lipid levels in Lithuanian adult populatio...