The A3AR was investigated for its involvement in protecting against maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis on the basis that ecto-5′-nucleotidase (CD73; catalyzes the conversion of extracellular AMP to adenosine) deficiency exacerbated myocardial hypertrophy and heart failure in TAC mice (Xu et al., 2008). Here, NT5E is linked to cardiac hypertrophy.