title: Advances in treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension: patent review.
abstract: Current therapeutic approaches for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) commonly include use of prostacyclins, endothelin pathway antagonists or NO (nitric oxide) pathway modulators. These agents are non-specific and suffer from several important shortcomings including short half-lives, invasive routes of administration, higher dose and frequency requirements, and several dose-related systemic side effects. Hence, discovery of novel agents with improved therapeutic efficacy with respect to survival benefits and the development of non-invasive routes of administration are in critical need. Current research aimed at developing more selective therapies for PAH are focused both on agents acting on novel molecular targets, as well as, novel compounds acting on conventional pathways with improved characteristics. Area covered: The present review covers recently filed (issued/application) patents (2010-2016) describing novel agents acting on investigational targets as well as novel compounds with improved characteristics acting on established targets. Patents describing combinations of conventional and investigational compounds are also discussed. Expert opinion: PAH has recently been considered as cancer-like disease with over-proliferation of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells. New cellular and molecular biological advances have revealed novel target/pathways involved in the pathogenesis and progression of PAH. Thus, discovery of agents that act on these novel pathways provides a promising avenue of research for improving therapeutic approaches for PAH.
authors.affiliation: a School of Pharmacy , Keck Graduate Institute , Claremont , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Bhuvaneshwar
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vaidya
authors.affiliation: b School of Applied Life Sciences , Keck Graduate Institute , Claremont , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pangallo
authors.affiliation: c Division of Molecular Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Gregoire
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ruffenach
authors.affiliation: c Division of Molecular Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Christine Marie
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.affiliation: d College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences , St. John's University , Queens , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Jeanette C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Perron
authors.affiliation: a School of Pharmacy , Keck Graduate Institute , Claremont , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Srikanth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kolluru
authors.affiliation: c Division of Molecular Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Mansoureh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eghbali
authors.affiliation: a School of Pharmacy , Keck Graduate Institute , Claremont , CA , USA.|d College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences , St. John's University , Queens , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology; D018450:Disease Progression; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D015195:Drug Design; D015507:Drugs, Investigational / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D010330:Patents as Topic
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D015507:Drugs, Investigational; D009569:Nitric Oxide
keywords: Pulmonary hypertension; Rho-kinase inhibitors; novel targets; pulmonary arterial hypertension; serotonin uptake inhibitors; tyrosine kinase inhibitors