from yahoo
Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) and Imetelstat
Pulmonary (relating to the lungs) hypertension has been defined as an increase of blood pressure in pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, or pulmonary capillaries……. the lung vasculature. Pulmonary hypertension can be a severe disease with a markedly decreased exercise tolerance and can lead to heart failure. Pulmonary hypertension is not to be ignored as the NIH registry from the 1980s showed an **untreated** median survival of only 2–3 years from time of diagnosis, with the cause of death usually being right ventricular failure.
In the publication Circulation (2015 Feb 24) 131(8):742-55, Mouraret N et al., investigated the role for telomerase in pulmonary hypertension. They looked at experimental pulmonary hypertension (PH) and its role in controlling pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell (PA-SMC) proliferation.
It’s a preclinical study but they looked at both Human and mice ...... marked TERT expression or activity was found in lungs from both **human patients with idiopathic PH** and from mice with PH induced by hypoxia or serotonin-transporter overexpression. Thus by combining studies of human and mouse lung tissues, mouse cells, and transgenic mouse models, they demonstrated that TERT activation in PA-SMCs played a major role in Pulmonary Hypertension pathogenesis.
To further investigate the mechanisms involved in the effects of telomerase in PH, they used **Imetelstat** as a pharmacological inhibitor and TA65 as a pharmacological stimulator.
Their results were absolutely remarkable to me as TERT inhibition with **Imetelstat** markedly inhibited FCS-induced PA-SMC growth, **abolishing the difference** between cells from mice with PH and control mice.
A potential non-cancer vector for Imetelstat ….maybe the first of many to come.
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United Therapeutics Corporation (UTHR) is the Pulmonary Hypertension company. Their stock has been on an incredible run (~$182). If IMET has a role to play here as a "non-cancer vector", this would be a remarkable application.
"evil flourishes when good people fail to act"
