A team at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain, has discovered a possible therapeutic target for pulmonary hypertension.
In a study published in Science Advances, researchers have identified the first therapeutic target that can be modulated to preserve cardiac function in pulmonary hypertension.
Currently available treatments target the lungs, aiming to lower blood pressure. However, these strategies do not improve cardiac function, making heart failure the main cause of death in these patients.
The CNIC researchers found that patients with COPD have elevated levels of a mitochondrial protein called MCJ, which could also be linked to pulmonary hypertension.
First author Ayelén M. Santamans, MD, observed that MCJ was also elevated in mice exposed to low oxygen levels and in pigs with induced cardiac injury.
“These results therefore suggested that the MCJ protein might be involved in pulmonary hypertension,” she said. “The lack of cardio-specific treatments for this disease spurred us to pursue this line of research.”
The study results demonstrate that modulating the levels of MCJ in the heart can preserve cardiac function despite the presence of lung injury.
This protection is a consequence of the activation of a signaling pathway essential for adaptation to low oxygen levels, which prepares the heart to function properly in the absence of oxygen.
The authors conclude that these findings could open the way to therapeutic interventions against pulmonary hypertension.
