RxPG News Feed for RxPG News

Medical Research Health Special Topics World
  Home
 
   Health
 Aging
 Asian Health
 Events
 Fitness
 Food & Nutrition
 Happiness
 Men's Health
 Mental Health
 Occupational Health
 Parenting
 Public Health
 Sleep Hygiene
 Women's Health
 
   Healthcare
 Africa
 Australia
 Canada Healthcare
 China Healthcare
 India Healthcare
 New Zealand
 South Africa
 UK
 USA
 World Healthcare
 
 Latest Research
 Aging
 Alternative Medicine
 Anaethesia
 Biochemistry
 Biotechnology
 Cancer
 Cardiology
 Clinical Trials
 Cytology
 Dental
 Dermatology
 Embryology
 Endocrinology
 ENT
 Environment
 Epidemiology
 Gastroenterology
 Genetics
 Gynaecology
 Haematology
 Immunology
 Infectious Diseases
 Medicine
 Metabolism
 Microbiology
 Musculoskeletal
 Nephrology
 Neurosciences
 Obstetrics
 Ophthalmology
 Orthopedics
 Paediatrics
 Pathology
 Pharmacology
 Physiology
 Physiotherapy
 Psychiatry
 Radiology
 Rheumatology
 Sports Medicine
 Surgery
 Toxicology
 Urology
 
   Medical News
 Awards & Prizes
 Epidemics
 Launch
 Opinion
 Professionals
 
   Special Topics
 Ethics
 Euthanasia
 Evolution
 Feature
 Odd Medical News
 Climate

Last Updated: Oct 11, 2012 - 10:22:56 PM
Research Article
Latest Research Channel

subscribe to Latest Research newsletter
Latest Research

   EMAIL   |   PRINT
Lungs' mast cells could provide new treatment target for asthma, other respiratory disease

Jan 29, 2008 - 5:00:00 AM
The goal of all this research: new treatment targets for a range of illnesses.

 
[RxPG] NEW YORK (Jan. 29, 2008) -- An enzyme released by mast cells in the lungs appears to play a key role in the tightening of airways that is a hallmark of asthma -- pointing to a potential new target for treatment against the illness.

Reporting in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team at Weill Cornell Medical College explains that during an immune response, mast cells release the enzyme -- called renin -- which in turn produces angiotensin, a potent constrictor of the smooth muscle that lines airways.

Mast cells are normally present in small numbers in all organs, and are best known for their role in allergy, shock, wound healing and defense against pathogens.

Back in 2005, our team was the first to discover that mast cells in the heart released renin locally, which elicited heart arrhythmias by triggering angiotensin production within the heart, explained co-senior author Dr. Roberto Levi, professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Now, we've expanded those findings to the lungs, where similar mechanisms appear to work locally to help trigger constriction in the airway, he says.

Renin is no stranger to medical research -- for decades, doctors have known that the enzyme is produced by the kidney in relatively large quantities for systemic use throughout the body. But the Weill Cornell team was the first to discover that mast cells also produced their own local supply of the enzyme, at a variety of body sites.

In the heart and now the lungs, this localized production of renin appears to have a profound effect on nearby tissues, says co-senior author Dr. Randi Silver, associate professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell.

More study is needed, of course, but our finding suggests that drugs that target renin might prove effective agents in dampening asthma or other respiratory diseases, she says. These types of 'renin inhibitors' are, in fact, currently being developed by the pharmaceutical industry right now.

The genesis of the new study came through the efforts of the study's lead author, Arul Veerappan, now a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Silver's laboratory. He looked closely at rings of bronchial tissue from rodents, discovering that mast cells in these rings released renin along with other substances.

You ended up getting the same biochemical cascade that we had seen elsewhere -- newly produced renin bringing about a local rise in angiotensin in tissues, Veerappan says.

Research led by co-author Alicia Reid, also a postdoctoral associate in Dr. Silver's lab, led to another first. Using a technology Reid developed, the researchers confirmed for the first time that mast cells from human lung tissue release a form of renin that is nearly identical to renin found in human mast cells grown in culture or human kidney renin.

That's a big achievement, because it supports the notion that the mechanism we have discovered is not just a laboratory phenomenon -- it's actually occurring in the living human lung, Dr. Levi notes.

New research suggests that local renin production may also be crucial in diseases marked by tissue fibrosis (stiffening). In fact, Dr. Silver's lab is now looking at the role locally produced renin might play in a rare, deadly illness called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), where lung tissue becomes increasingly inflexible over time.

We're interested in any disease in which we can also detect local renin/angiotensin production because it appears to be linked to fibrosis, vasoconstriction, and now bronchoconstriction, Dr. Silver explains.

The goal of all this research: new treatment targets for a range of illnesses.

Of course, we already have antihypertensive medicines -- such as ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers -- that focus on curbing angiotensin in a more systemic way, says Dr. Levi. But if we could find agents that dampen this renin-angiotensin cascade locally -- in the heart or the lung, for example -- that could prove to be a formidable new weapon against disease.




Advertise in this space for $10 per month. Contact us today.


Related Latest Research News


Subscribe to Latest Research Newsletter

Enter your email address:


 Feedback
For any corrections of factual information, to contact the editors or to send any medical news or health news press releases, use feedback form

Top of Page

 
Contact us

RxPG Online

Nerve

 

    Full Text RSS

© All rights reserved by RxPG Medical Solutions Private Limited (India)