Authors: Portaluppi, F.; Boari, B.; Manfredini, R.

Source: Current Pharmaceutical Design, Volume 10, Number 14, May 2004 , pp. 1695-1698(4)

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers

Abstract:

A major cause for endothelial dysfunction in essential hypertension is decreased availability of nitric oxide (NO). Impairment in NO bioavailability is likely to be the consequence of multiple mechanisms affecting NO synthesis as well as NO breakdown. An alteration in the redox balance in endothelial cells leads to increased superoxide anion production and oxidative stress. This in turn not only exerts negative effects on vascular tone, but is also able to activate important mechanisms (such as platelet activity, leukocyte adhesion, vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and expression of adhesion molecules) with an established central role in the pathogenesis of hypertensive target organ damage.

As a consequence, a drug therapy able to restore NO availability in essential hypertensive patients would probably exert additional benefits, as compared to blood pressure lowering per se , in terms of prevention of target organ damage and improved prognosis of these patients. Unfortunately, as of today only the antagonists of the renin-angiotensin system and the calcium-channel blockers have shown some ability in this respect, whereas no longitudinal intervention study has been undertaken, so far, to prove that the restoration of NO bioavailability through an antihypertensive treatment may confer additional prognostic advantage to essential hypertensive patients.

Keywords: hypertension; endothelial function; nitric oxide; reactive oxygen species; antagonists of the renin-angiotensin system; calcium antagonists

Document Type: Review article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1381612043384619

Affiliations: 1: Hypertension Center,University of Ferrara, Via Savonarola 9, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy.

Publication date: 2004-05-01

More about this publication?

• Current Pharmaceutical Design publishes timely in-depth reviews covering all aspects of current research in rational drug design. Each issue is devoted to a single major therapeutic area. A Guest Editor who is an acknowledged authority in a therapeutic field has solicits for each issue comprehensive and timely reviews from leading researchers in the pharmaceutical industry and academia.
  
  Each thematic issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design covers all subject areas of major importance to modern drug design, including: medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, drug targets and disease mechanism.

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Pharmacology
• By this author: Portaluppi, F. ;  Boari, B. ;  Manfredini, R.

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers