Hyderabad: Indian researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research have made a crucial breakthrough in finding a treatment for pulmonary hypertension. A cure to the disease, which can lead to heart failure, was hitherto unknown.
Pulmonary hypertension is characterised by excessive uncontrolled cell division in blood vessels making its walls thicker. This makes it harder for the heart to pump blood through the vessels. Several forms of treatment have been made available but a permanent cure remained elusive.
A research team led by Dr Soni S. Pullamsetti found a protein that plays a decisive role in cell division in the walls of blood vessels. Scientists found that patients with pulmonary hypertension have uncontrolled cell division leading to the thickening of vessel walls. Experiments on rats by activating the protein, named Fox01, controled cell division and thereby essentially stalled pulmonary hypertension.
“The vessel walls of pulmonary arteries are constantly being renewed. A complex interplay of many factors normally ensures that the ratio between dividing and dying cells is balanced,” Dr Pullamsetti explained.
She said, “In patients with pulmonary hypertension FoxO1 is not sufficiently active so that the activity of various genes is not properly controlled.” Scientists said that activating Fox01 controlled cell division and cured the disease in rats. Studies on rats showed that switching off Fox01 led to increased division and pulmonary hypertension. With this discovery, therapies to control pulmonary hypertension can be found. “Although a lot of children and elders die due to this disease awareness about it started increasing in India only recently,” Dr Pullamsetti said.
