Angiotensin News and Research

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Angiotensin is an oligopeptide in the blood that causes vasoconstriction, increased blood pressure, and release of aldosterone from the adrenal cortex. It is a powerful dipsogen. It is derived from the precursor molecule angiotensinogen, a serum globulin produced in the liver. It plays an important role in the renin-angiotensin system.

Trail of research that led to discovery of aspirin's role in prevention of first heart attack

Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., DrPH, the first Sir Richard Doll Research Professor as well as first recipient of an endowed chair in the new Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, has published a Citation Classic in the current issue of Clinical Chemistry. Hennekens was the founding principal investigator (PI) of the landmark Physician's Health Study and was the first to demonstrate that aspirin prevents a first heart attack.

7 Jan 2012

Losartan may help prevent smoking-related COPD

Working with mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins have successfully used a commonly prescribed blood pressure medicine, losartan (Cozaar), to prevent almost all of the lung damage caused from two months of exposure to cigarette smoke. The treatment specifically targeted lung tissue breakdown, airway wall thickening, inflammation and lung over-expansion.

4 Jan 2012

Takeda receives FDA approval for EDARBYCLOR to treat hypertension

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved EDARBYCLOR (azilsartan medoxomil and chlorthalidone) for the treatment of hypertension to lower blood pressure in adults.

21 Dec 2011

Lostartan can reduce cigarette smoke-induced lung injury

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is among the most common causes of death in the US. It is a smoking-related disease for which there are currently no disease-altering therapies. However, hope that one could be developed is now provided by the work of Enid Neptune and colleagues, at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in a mouse model of lung disease caused by exposure to cigarette smoke.

20 Dec 2011

GSK initiates rhACE2 phase IIa study for Acute Lung Injury

APEIRON Biologics AG announced today that GlaxoSmithKline, exclusive, worldwide licensee for Apeiron's new investigational recombinant human Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (rhACE2, name: GSK2586881, formerly APN01), has initiated a phase IIa study in patients suffering from Acute Lung Injury.

19 Dec 2011

ACE inhibitors, ARBs have different effects on heart health of dialysis patients

Two seemingly similar blood pressure-lowering drugs have different effects on the heart health of dialysis patients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

12 Dec 2011

Blocking CaM kinase may help prevent cardiac rupture

For people who initially survive a heart attack, a significant cause of death in the next few days is cardiac rupture -- literally, bursting of the heart wall. A new study by University of Iowa researchers pinpoints a single protein as the key player in the biochemical cascade that leads to cardiac rupture.

18 Nov 2011

Combination of antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs may increase risk of CV mortality

People taking anti-psychotic drugs and anti-depressant drugs have a much higher risk of dying during an acute coronary event of a fatal arrhythmia than the rest of the population, finds a Finnish study published in the European Heart Journal.

16 Nov 2011

Eliminating drug co-pays improves medication adherence in heart attack patients

The use of specific medications following a heart attack has been shown to reduce cardiovascular events and mortality, however; while highly effective, the rate of adherence to these medications is poor. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) evaluated whether eliminating co-payments for these medications would increase adherence and improve outcomes in patients who have had a heart attack.

15 Nov 2011

Concert to initiate CTP-499 Phase 2 diabetic nephropathy clinical trial in 2012

Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced data from a Phase 1 clinical trial of CTP-499, a novel agent for the potential treatment of diabetic nephropathy.

14 Nov 2011

Gilead, CRF commence ranolazine Phase 3 clinical trial for chronic stable angina in post-PCI setting

Gilead Sciences, Inc. and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) today announced the initiation of RIVER-PCI (Ranolazine for Incomplete VEssel Revascularization post-PCI), a Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the utility of ranolazine to prevent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with a history of chronic angina who have incomplete revascularization following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

7 Nov 2011

No unique link between first-trimester ACE inhibitor use and birth defects

Women who take angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors to treat high blood pressure in the first trimester of their pregnancies are at no greater risk of having babies with birth defects than are women who take other types of high blood pressure medication or who take no blood pressure drugs, according to a new study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

21 Oct 2011

Data from Concert Pharmaceuticals' CTP-499 study to be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2011

Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that three abstracts relating to CTP-499, its clinical candidate for the potential treatment of diabetic nephropathy, have been accepted for poster presentations at the American Society of Nephrology's (ASN) Kidney Week 2011.

19 Oct 2011

Hypertension drugs might reduce occurrence of Alzheimer's

Within the next 20 years it is expected the number of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) will double from its current figure of half a million to one million. A new study has looked at whether certain types of drugs used to treat high blood pressure, also called hypertension, might have beneficial effects in reducing the number of new cases of Alzheimer's disease each year.

18 Oct 2011

ESC to deliver educational programme on cardiovascular disease in Beijing

At over 40%, the mortality rate due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) in China is amongst the highest in the world- and has been rightly described as an epidemic. Its population faces a catalogue of CVD risk factor statistics that expose high levels of obesity, diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure, and a smoking habit within males that is proving stubborn to address.

13 Oct 2011

Spinifex initiates EMA401 Phase 2 trial in postherpetic neuralgia

Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, an Australian pain drug development company, today announced the first patients have been treated in its Phase 2 clinical trial of EMA401 in postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), a painful condition that develops in some patients following herpes zoster (shingles) and where existing therapy does not relieve pain in all individuals.

19 Sep 2011

Spinifex announces new data from EMA401 pre-clinical study on diabetic neuropathy

Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, an Australian pain drug development company, today announces the presentation of new data from a study of EMA401 in a model of diabetic neuropathy.

12 Sep 2011

Heart attack patients with psoriasis more likely to die from cardiovascular disease

Heart attack patients with psoriasis are 26 per cent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease, or suffer from recurrent heart attacks or strokes, and are 18 per cent more likely to die from all causes than those without the inflammatory skin disease.

12 Sep 2011

Scientists identify 28 blood pressure-associated genetic variants

A new report from scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and their colleagues in centers around the world finds that common variants in 28 regions of DNA are associated with blood pressure in human patients.

12 Sep 2011

AF AWARE campaign launches Atrial Fibrillation in Primary Care tool

The AF AWARE campaign today, at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2011 in Paris, announces the launch of the Atrial Fibrillation in Primary Care (AFIP) tool, developed to help primary care physicians (PCPs) with early diagnosis and optimal management of patients with atrial fibrillation.

29 Aug 2011