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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jan 15, 2026; 17(1): 112027
Published online Jan 15, 2026. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v17.i1.112027
Published online Jan 15, 2026. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v17.i1.112027
Microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 4 exacerbates diabetic cardiomyopathy by inhibiting UNC-51-like kinase 1-mediated mitochondrial autophagy
Yi Wu, Sai Wang, Zhi Zeng, Bin Li, The Clinical Research Center for Acute Myocardial Infarction of Hubei Province, Xianning Central Hospital, Xianning 437000, Hubei Province, China
Wei-Yi Wang, Jing-Qi Zhang, Lu Fu, Laboratory of Cardiovascular Internal Medicine Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang Province, China
Co-first authors: Yi Wu and Wei-Yi Wang.
Author contributions: Wu Y and Wang WY made equal contributions as co-first authors; Wu Y, Li B, and Fu L designed the study; Wu Y, Wang WY, and Zhang JQ carried out the experiments; Wu Y, Zhang JQ, Wang WY, Wang S, and Zeng Z collected and analyzed the data; Wu Y wrote the manuscript; Li B and Fu L supervised the experiments and revised the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Health and Wellness Science and Technology Project of Hubei Province, No. WJ2025Q012.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal procedures were approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of Hubei University of Science and Technology, No. IACUC202504009.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bin Li, Associate Chief Physician, The Clinical Research Center for Acute Myocardial Infarction of Hubei Province, Xianning Central Hospital, No. 228 Jingui Road, Xianning 437000, Hubei Province, China. lbxnszxyy0405@163.com
Received: July 17, 2025
Revised: September 4, 2025
Accepted: November 28, 2025
Published online: January 15, 2026
Processing time: 181 Days and 21.7 Hours
Revised: September 4, 2025
Accepted: November 28, 2025
Published online: January 15, 2026
Processing time: 181 Days and 21.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study explored the role of microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 4 (MARK4) in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). The results showed that the MARK4 level was significantly elevated in DCM mice. Downregulation of MARK4 could alleviate myocardial injury and enhance mitochondrial autophagy function. By upregulating UNC-51-like kinase 1, the downregulation of MARK4 promoted mitochondrial autophagy and protected cardiac function. This study revealed the significance of MARK4 as a potential therapeutic target for DCM, providing new ideas for protecting the myocardium of patients with diabetes.