Preface

This special issue of Therapeutic Advances in Cardiovascular Disease contains some of the key contributions that leaders in the field of heart and blood vessel disease presented at the International Conference entitled RAS MASTER CLASS on the 27^th of June 2015 in Shanghai, China. The event, co-chaired by Ji-Guang Wang, MD, PhD, FAHA, FESC, Professor of cardiovascular medicine at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, and Professor of epidemiology at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Public Health, Shanghai, China, and Carlos M Ferrario, MD, FAHA, FASH, FACC brought together a cadre of distinguished contributors to address the critical importance of approaches directed to counteract angiotensin II pathological actions in the progression of cardiovascular and hypertension-related cerebrovascular diseases.

While cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death worldwide, the explosive improvement of socioeconomic indices, rapid urbanization, and replacement of a traditional kitchen-based diet for processed fast-foods in China are predicted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to increase annual cardiovascular events by 50% between 2010 and 2030. Official estimates of the situation today note that 230 million people have cardiovascular disease in China [Bi et al. 2015; Liu et al. 2015; Liu and Yi, 2015).

This compendium documents six of the 12 lectures that were delivered at this meeting. The evolution of our knowledge regarding the role of the renin angiotensin system (RAS) in physiology and pathology is addressed by Professor Bryan Williams, MD, FRCP, FESC, FAHA, who is the Chair of Medicine at University College London and Director of the University College London Hospitals National Institutes for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre. This article documents the rationale for and the effectiveness of drugs that interfere with the biochemical mechanisms that lead to Ang II production and overactivity. A second article by Professor Williams addresses the importance of the vascular aging mechanisms contributing to the progression of cardiovascular disease. Professor Du Zhi-Min’s lecture is documented in the article by Zhuang Xiao-Dong, MD and collaborators from the Department of cardiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. This provocative study summarizes the stage of our knowledge through the use of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II (Ang II) receptor blockers (ARBs) in re-stenosis prevention following percutaneous coronary intervention and the evolution of coronary artery disease. Professor Dr. med. Rainer Düsing of the Hypertension Institute in Bonn, Germany provides in two accompanying articles a critical analysis of the data that suggest that RAS inhibition leads to cardiovascular protection by mechanisms that are independent of the degree of blood pressure control, as well as a detailed evaluation of the conclusions obtained through the publication of mega-trials employing RAS inhibitors. The compendium of articles in this issue of Therapeutic Advances in Cardiovascular Disease is completed by an article from Carlos M Ferrario, MD, FAHA, FASH, FACC from Wake Forest University Health Science Center in Winston Salem, NC, USA who evaluates the mechanisms by which RAS inhibition affords cardioprotection and discusses new findings implicating cardiac intracrine non-canonical mechanisms of Ang II production as a mechanism accounting for adverse cardiac remodeling.

We hope that the papers enclosed in this special issue of the journal will be of interest to our readership and stimulate further work, both clinical and experimental, toward expanding the effective treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease in China and elsewhere. The faculty participating in this event gratefully acknowledges the editorial assistance provided by the Medical Affairs Hypertension Franchise of Novartis Pharma, China.