Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 211.6 to int loses precision in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 534
Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 211.6 to int loses precision in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 534
Warning: imagejpeg(C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\phplern\27819072
.jpg): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 117 J+Rare+Dis+Res+Treat
2016 ; 1
(2
): 17-24
Nephropedia Template TP
gab.com Text
Twit Text FOAVip
Twit Text #
English Wikipedia
Apoptosis-based therapy to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension
#MMPMID27819072
Suzuki YJ
; Ibrahim YF
; Shults NV
J Rare Dis Res Treat
2016[]; 1
(2
): 17-24
PMID27819072
show ga
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is rare, but patients who are diagnosed
with this disease still suffer from a lack of satisfactory treatment strategies
to prolong survival. While currently approved drugs for PAH have some benefits,
these vasodilators only have limited efficacy for eliminating pulmonary vascular
remodeling and reducing mortality. Thus, our laboratory has been exploring the
use of aggressive drugs, which are capable of causing apoptotic cell death, to
treat PAH. We have so far found that three classes of anti-tumor agents,
including anthracyclines, taxanes, and proteasome inhibitors, are capable of
reducing pulmonary vascular thickness in rats with PAH. These drugs kill cells in
remodeled pulmonary vessels without affecting the normal, healthy pulmonary
vasculature, revealing that proliferating vascular cells in PAH patients are more
sensitive to drug-induced apoptosis compared to the differentiated phenotype that
is physiologically important for smooth muscle contraction. Since many
apoptosis-inducing drugs cause cardiotoxicity in cancer patients, and because PAH
patients already have a weakened heart, we focus on finding biological mechanisms
that may reverse pulmonary vascular remodeling without promoting cardiotoxicity.
We found two agents, dexrazoxane and pifithrin-?, that selectively inhibit
cardiac muscle apoptosis without affecting the drug-induced apoptosis of the
proliferating pulmonary vascular cells. Thus, we propose that the addition of
apoptosis-inducing drugs and cardioprotectants to PAH therapies may be effective
in treating patients and preventing right heart failure.