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Pulmonary Hypertension: Pre-clinical Research on New Molecular Targets and Therapeutic Strategies

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2024 | Viewed by 3835

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Surgery and Physiology, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Interests: pulmonary arterial hypertension; right ventricle function; animal models; receptor tyrosine kinase signalling; bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2; heart failure

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Pulmonary hypertension is a disorder with a complex pathophysiology that can be associated with multiple conditions, including primary vascular disease, heart failure, interstitial lung disease, thromboembolic disease, or other multifactorial or unknown causes.

While an earlier diagnosis and combinational therapies promote a better prognosis, it is still associated with a worse quality of life and survival.

In recent years, significant efforts, including the description of new signalling pathways and genetic mutations associated with the disease, the development of new animal models, and new therapeutic interventions, have resulted in generating a better understanding of the disease. Despite that, new efficacious treatments are still being developed, specifically ones that can halt disease progression and the deadly development of right ventricular failure.

In this Special Issue, we aim to highlight basic and translational research that can move the field of PH forward, by describing new pathways to be targeted, defining new therapeutic strategies, creating new animal models, or better characterizing the disease both at pulmonary and cardiac levels.

Dr. Pedro Mendes-Ferreira
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • pulmonary hypertension
  • right ventricle
  • animal models
  • heart failure
  • pulmonary arterial hypertension

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

26 pages, 2335 KiB  
Review
Immunotherapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: From the Pathogenesis to Clinical Management
by Yihan Zhang, Xing Li, Shang Li, Yu Zhou, Tiantai Zhang and Lan Sun
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(15), 8427; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25158427 - 1 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1593
Abstract
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive cardiovascular disease, which may lead to severe cardiopulmonary dysfunction. As one of the main PH disease groups, pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) is characterized by pulmonary vascular remodeling and right ventricular dysfunction. Increased pulmonary artery resistance consequently causes [...] Read more.
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive cardiovascular disease, which may lead to severe cardiopulmonary dysfunction. As one of the main PH disease groups, pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) is characterized by pulmonary vascular remodeling and right ventricular dysfunction. Increased pulmonary artery resistance consequently causes right heart failure, which is the major reason for morbidity and mortality in this disease. Although various treatment strategies have been available, the poor clinical prognosis of patients with PAH reminds us that further studies of the pathological mechanism of PAH are still needed. Inflammation has been elucidated as relevant to the initiation and progression of PAH, and plays a crucial and functional role in vascular remodeling. Many immune cells and cytokines have been demonstrated to be involved in the pulmonary vascular lesions in PAH patients, with the activation of downstream signaling pathways related to inflammation. Consistently, this influence has been found to correlate with the progression and clinical outcome of PAH, indicating that immunity and inflammation may have significant potential in PAH therapy. Therefore, we reviewed the pathogenesis of inflammation and immunity in PAH development, focusing on the potential targets and clinical application of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive therapy. Full article
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17 pages, 509 KiB  
Review
Therapeutic Approaches in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension with Beneficial Effects on Right Ventricular Function—Preclinical Studies
by André Balsa, Rui Adão and Carmen Brás-Silva
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(21), 15539; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242115539 - 24 Oct 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1726
Abstract
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive condition that affects the pulmonary vessels, but its main prognostic factor is the right ventricle (RV) function. Many mice/rat models are used for research in PAH, but results fail to translate to clinical trials. This study reviews [...] Read more.
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive condition that affects the pulmonary vessels, but its main prognostic factor is the right ventricle (RV) function. Many mice/rat models are used for research in PAH, but results fail to translate to clinical trials. This study reviews studies that test interventions on pulmonary artery banding (PAB), a model of isolated RV disfunction, and PH models. Multiple tested drugs both improved pulmonary vascular hemodynamics in PH models and improved RV structure and function in PAB animals. PH models and PAB animals frequently exhibited similar results (73.1% concordance). Macitentan, sildenafil, and tadalafil improved most tested pathophysiological parameters in PH models, but almost none in PAB animals. Results are frequently not consistent with other studies, possibly due to the methodology, which greatly varied. Some research groups start treating the animals immediately, and others wait up to 4 weeks from model induction. Treatment duration and choice of anaesthetic are other important differences. This review shows that many drugs currently under research for PAH have a cardioprotective effect on animals that may translate to humans. However, a uniformization of methods may increase comparability between studies and, thus, improve translation to clinical trials. Full article
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