Vasoproliferation and antiproliferative treatment options in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Abstract

New treatment options have improved the prognosis of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. However, drugs such as prostanoids, PDE5 inhibitors and endothelin receptor antagonists mainly act as vasodilating agents. Recently, it has become clear that pulmonary arterial hypertension is an inflammatory and vasoproliferative disease. Therefore new anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative treatments are needed. This review will focus on the pathogenesis of inflammation and vasoproliferation in pulmonary hypertension. In addition, an overview on possible new antiinflammatory and antiproliferative drugs in pulmonary hypertension (e.g. Rho-kinase inhibitors, imatinib mesylate. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) will be given along with recent patents.