New Target for Heart Failure Therapy Identified
Drug Discovery & Development -
March 18, 2009
A novel signaling pathway plays a significant role in the production of aldosterone, a hormone that promotes heart failure after a myocardial infarction, according to a study conducted by Thomas Jefferson University researchers.
The findings show that aldosterone production is mediated by a protein called b-arrestin-1. b-arrestin-1 binds to angiotensin II receptors when they are activated by angiotensin II.
Aldosterone is secreted by the adrenal cortex. Its levels are elevated in chronic heart failure, and its presence contributes to morbidity and mortality of the disease. It contributes to heart failure progression and diminished cardiac function after myocardial infarction.
The production of aldosterone was previously thought to be solely the result of the activation of G-proteins, which are also activated when angiotensin II binds to its receptors, according to Anastasios Lymperopoulos, Ph.D., a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Center for Translational Medicine and the George Zallie and Family Laboratory for Cardiovascular Gene Therapy at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.
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