NPPB and cardiac hypertrophy: Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is characterized by depressed heart function, cardiac fibrosis, apoptosis, and ectopic expression of fetal cardiac genes such as atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) (Bernardo et al., 2010; Maillet et al., 2013; Nakamura and Sadoshima, 2018).