Title:Neprilysin: A Potential Therapeutic Target of Arterial Hypertension?
Volume: 16
Issue: 1
Author(s): Juan Salazar*, Joselyn Rojas-Quintero, Clímaco Cano, José L. Pérez, Paola Ramírez, Rubén Carrasquero, Wheeler Torres, Cristobal Espinoza, Maricarmen Chacín-González and Valmore Bermúdez
Affiliation:
- Endocrine and Metabolic Disease Research Center, School of Medicine, University of Zulia, Maracaibo,Venezuela
Keywords:
Arterial hypertension, heart failure, neprilysin, natriuretic peptides, sacubitril, pharmacology.
Abstract: Arterial hypertension is the most prevalent chronic disease in the adult population of developed
countries and it constitutes a significant risk factor in the development of cardiovascular
disease, contributing to the emergence of many comorbidities, among which heart failure excels, a
clinical syndrome that nowadays represents a major health problem with uncountable hospitalizations
and the indolent course of which progressively worsens until quality of life decreases and
lastly death occurs prematurely. In the light of this growing menace, each day more efforts are invested
in the field of cardiovascular pharmacology, searching for new therapeutic options that allow
us to modulate the physiological systems that appear among these pathologies. Therefore, in
the later years, the study of natriuretic peptides has become so relevant, which mediate beneficial
effects at the cardiovascular level such as diuresis, natriuresis, and decreasing cardiac remodeling;
their metabolism is mediated by neprilysin, a metalloproteinase, widely expressed in the human and
capable of catalyzing many substrates. The modulation of these functions has been studied by decades,
giving room to Sacubitril, the first neprilysin inhibitor, which in conjunction with an angiotensin
receptor blocker has provided a high efficacy and tolerability among patients with heart failure,
for whom it has already been approved and recommended. Nonetheless, in the matter of arterial
hypertension, significant findings have arisen that demonstrate the potential role that it will play
among the pharmacological alternatives in the upcoming years.
