Hypertension project at Sidec
collaboration with a US research institute to study a receptor
involved in the regulation of blood pressure.
Sweden's Sidec Technologies, a specialist in three-dimensional imaging, has entered into a contract research collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute in the USA to study a receptor protein involved in the regulation of blood pressure.
"Hypertension is one of the leading causes of death throughout the world. Using a 3-D protein analysis to determine how the system in the body works to maintain optimal blood pressure may help in developing medications to the mimic and enhance those regulatory mechanisms," said Kunio Misono, a scientist at the Lerner Research Institute and the project's principle investigator.
The target in question is the atrial natriuretic peptide receptor (ANPR), and Sidec's task will be to analyse and characterise the interaction between ANP, the natural ligand of the membrane-bound receptor, in order to help design drugs that can modulate its activity.
A relative of ANP, known as b-type natriuretic factor, is already on the market as a treatment for heart failure and is sold as Natrecor (nesiritide) by Scios.
Meanwhile, other clues to the potential of the ANP/ANPR interaction as a drug target in hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases comes from studies of established blood pressure-lowering drugs. For example, angiotensin II receptor antagonists - such as irbesartan sold by Sanofi-Synthelabo and Bristol-Myers Squibb - have been shown in clinical trials to reduce circulating levels of ANP.
