Cardiovascular disease remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. And one of the major contributors to these conditions is high blood pressure. Although there are antihypertensive treatments, these drugs are not without side effects and some variants of the disease are resistant to treatment. The need for more effective therapies to treat hypertension-related diseases is therefore urgent.
A key protein for vascular and cardiac homeostasis, lipid metabolism and cancer prevention.
However, to develop new treatments, biologists and pharmacologists need more detailed maps of the mechanisms underlying cardiovascular regulation. This protein and membrane receptor, known as pGC-A and located at the top of cardiovascular cells, acts as a regulator, or somewhat like a thermostat, sensitively adjusting the body’s blood pressure to maintain a homeostatic balance essential to health. The receptor not only acts as a vital cellular component for vascular and cardiac homeostasis, but also plays an important role in lipid metabolism and in the development or prevention of cancer.
The study provides the first characterization and structural analysis of the pGC-A receptor. Thus, the scientists managed to “crystallize” the protein, which allowed a precise resolution of its structure. By providing an understanding of this key receptor for cardiovascular health and its signaling mechanisms, this work paves the way for a new series of antihypertensive drugs, which could ward off heart attacks and strokes and improve recovery after these events. .
One of the authors, Debbie Hansen, underlines the prowess in “biodesign”, which has just been accomplished: “Deciphering the unique structures of these membrane proteins often requires years of effort”.
However, the “game is worth the effort” as more than a third of all deaths worldwide can be attributed to cardiovascular disease and the prevalence of hypertension, one of the main cardiovascular factors, continues to grow. .
This is to fight against resistant forms of hypertension treatment, more likely to occur in obese, diabetic or renal failure patients, forms which today represent 12 to 15% of hypertension cases. Thus, the design of new drugs that bind to the pGC-A receptor protein, and subsequently the characterization of other membrane proteins, could make it possible to meet the urgent need for effective drugs to control different forms of hypertension and a wide range of other medical conditions.