NPPB and cardiac hypertrophy: CaMKII expression and activity are altered in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure (Ramirez et al., 1997), and the overexpression of CaMKIIδ, the principal isoform detected in heart, increases the mRNA levels of β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC), α-skeletal actin (SKA), atrial natriuretic peptide, and brain natriuretic peptide, which are all well-characterized cardiac hypertrophy markers (Ramirez et al., 1997; Zhang et al., 2007).