Juan Pablo de Rivero Vaccari | Extracellular Vesicles Mediate Inflammasome Signaling In The Brain

Juan Pablo de Rivero Vaccari, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Miami, United States Title: Extracellular Vesicles Mediate Inflammasome Signaling In The Brain And Heart Abstract: The inflammasome is a multitprotein complex of the innate immune response involved in the activation of the inflammatory cysteine aspartase caspase-1, the processing of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1 and IL-18 as well as the cell death process of pyroptosis. As a key mediator of inflammation, these processes are ubiquitous to several diseases and conditions. Thus, the inflammasome plays an important role in a variety of diseases/conditions and associated comorbidities. For instance, after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke patients experienced cardiac complications, and we have shown that extracellular vesicles containing a cargo of inflammasome proteins are released from the brain and travel to the heart in the circulatory system where these vesicles induce an inflammatory response that results in inflammasome activation in the heart after TBI and stroke. Similarly, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with many comorbidities, including cardiovascular disease. Heart disease and stroke contribute to poor outcomes in AD patients, and our data in an animal model of AD show that inflammasome activation is greater in the heart of APP/PS1 mice when compared to controls. Accordingly, there was a significant increase in inflammasome activation in the heart ventricles of AD mice when compared to controls. Moreover, conditioned media experiments of serum-derived EV from AD patients and age-matched controls to cardiovascular cells in culture resulted in inflammasome activation and significant increases in inflammatory cytokines. Together, these results indicate that EV-mediated inflammasome signaling in the heart contributes to the development of cardiovascular diseases in TBI, stroke and AD patients. Biography Juan Pablo de Rivero Vaccari holds a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics and an M.S. in Business Analytics from the University of Miami, and a B.S. in Biology from Florida International University. He is an Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami. He co-founded InflamaCORE, LLC., and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of ZyVersa Therapeutics. His research focuses on inflammasome activation, neuroinflammation, and biomarkers in neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease. He has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, including recent publications on inflammasome signaling in stroke, spinal cord injury and neurodegenerative diseases. #CardioWorldCongress2026 #WCAC2026 #Cardiology2026 #Cardiology #CardiovascularResearch #Cardiologist #HeartDisease #HeartHealth #CardiologyConference #MedicalConference #Healthcare #CardiologyEducation #PreventiveCardiology #Rome #HybridConference #CardioWorldCongress