A novel vascular homing peptide strategy to selectively enhance pulmonary drug efficacy in pulmonary arterial hypertension.

ABSTRACT: A major limitation in the pharmacological treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is the lack of pulmonary vascular selectivity. Recent studies have identified a tissue-penetrating homing peptide, CARSKNKDC (CAR), which specifically homes to hypertensive pulmonary arteries but not to normal pulmonary vessels or other tissues. Some tissue-penetrating vascular homing peptides have a unique ability to facilitate transport of co-administered drugs into the targeted cells/tissues without requiring physical conjugation of the drug to the peptide (bystander effect). We tested the hypothesis that co-administered CAR would selectively enhance the pulmonary vascular effects of i.v. vasodilators in Sugen5416/hypoxia/normoxia-exposed PAH rats. Systemically administered CAR was predominantly

SUBMITTER: Toba M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3906494 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature