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Review
. 2022 Oct 17;15(10):1277.
doi: 10.3390/ph15101277.

Recent Advances in the Treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Naoyuki Otani  1 , Takashi Tomoe  1 , Atsuhiko Kawabe  1 , Takushi Sugiyama  1 , Yasuto Horie  1 , Hiroyuki Sugimura  1 , Takanori Yasu  1 , Takaaki Nakamoto  1
Affiliations
Review

Recent Advances in the Treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Naoyuki Otani et al. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). .

Abstract

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease in which stenosis or obstruction of the pulmonary arteries (PAs) causes an increase in PA pressure, leading to right-sided heart failure and death. Basic research has revealed a decrease in the levels of endogenous vasodilators, such as prostacyclin, and an increase in the levels of endogenous vasoconstrictors, such as endothelin, in patients with PAH, leading to the development of therapeutic agents. Currently, therapeutic agents for PAH target three pathways that are selective for PAs: the prostacyclin, endothelin, and nitric oxide pathways. These treatments improve the prognosis of PAH patients. In this review, we introduce new drug therapies and provide an overview of the current therapeutic agents.

Keywords: drug targets; pulmonary arterial hypertension; therapy; vasodilators.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Three pathways of targeted therapeutic agents for pulmonary artery hypertension. Current therapeutic agents are targeted at correcting endothelial dysfunction by inhibiting the endothelin pathway and enhancing the prostacyclin or nitric oxide (NO) pathway. PGI2: prostaglandin I2; ETRA: endothelin A receptor; ETRB: endothelin B receptor; eNOS: endothelial isoform of nitric oxide synthase; sGC: soluble guanylate cyclase, PDE5: phosphodiesterase type 5, cAMP: cyclic adenosine monophosphate; cGMP: cyclic guanosine monophosphate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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