Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain; Institute of Health Research Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), Madrid, Spain; CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias (Ciberes), Madrid, Spain.
Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
Biomed Pharmacother. 2023 Aug;164:114952. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2023.114952. Epub 2023 Jun 7.
K7 channels exert a pivotal role regulating vascular tone in several vascular beds. In this context, K7 channel agonists represent an attractive strategy for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Therefore, in this study, we have explored the pulmonary vascular effects of the novel K7 channel agonist URO-K10. Consequently, the vasodilator and electrophysiological effects of URO-K10 were tested in rat and human pulmonary arteries (PA) and PA smooth muscle cells (PASMC) using myography and patch-clamp techniques. Protein expression was also determined by Western blot. Morpholino-induced knockdown of KCNE4 was assessed in isolated PA. PASMC proliferation was measured by BrdU incorporation assay. In summary, our data show that URO-K10 is a more effective relaxant of PA than the classical K7 activators retigabine and flupirtine. URO-K10 enhanced K currents in PASMC and its electrophysiological and relaxant effects were inhibited by the K7 channel blocker XE991. The effects of URO-K10 were confirmed in human PA. URO-K10 also exhibited antiproliferative effects in human PASMC. Unlike retigabine and flupirtine, URO-K10-induced pulmonary vasodilation was not affected by morpholino-induced knockdown of the KCNE4 regulatory subunit. Noteworthy, the pulmonary vasodilator efficacy of this compound was considerably increased under conditions mimicking the ionic remodelling (as an in vitro model of PAH) and in PA from monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertensive rats. Taking all together, URO-K10 behaves as a KCNE4-independent K7 channel activator with much increased pulmonary vascular effects compared to classical K7 channel activators. Our study identifies a promising new drug in the context of PAH.
K7 通道在几个血管床中对血管张力发挥着关键作用。在这种情况下,K7 通道激动剂代表了治疗肺动脉高压 (PAH) 的一种有吸引力的策略。因此,在这项研究中,我们探索了新型 K7 通道激动剂 URO-K10 对肺血管的影响。因此,使用肌动描记术和膜片钳技术在大鼠和人肺动脉 (PA) 和肺动脉平滑肌细胞 (PASMC) 中测试了 URO-K10 的血管舒张和电生理作用。还通过 Western blot 确定了蛋白质表达。在分离的 PA 中评估了基于 morpholino 的 KCNE4 敲低。通过 BrdU 掺入测定法测量 PASMC 增殖。总之,我们的数据表明,URO-K10 是一种比经典 K7 激活剂 retigabine 和 flupirtine 更有效的 PA 松弛剂。URO-K10 增强了 PASMC 中的 K 电流,其电生理和松弛作用被 K7 通道阻滞剂 XE991 抑制。在人 PA 中证实了 URO-K10 的作用。URO-K10 还在人 PASMC 中表现出抗增殖作用。与 retigabine 和 flupirtine 不同,URO-K10 诱导的肺血管舒张不受 KCNE4 调节亚基诱导的 morpholino 敲低的影响。值得注意的是,在模拟离子重塑的条件下(作为 PAH 的体外模型)和在来自 monocrotaline 诱导的肺动脉高压大鼠的 PA 中,这种化合物的肺血管舒张效力大大增加。综上所述,与经典的 K7 通道激活剂相比,URO-K10 作为一种不依赖 KCNE4 的 K7 通道激活剂,具有增加的肺血管作用。我们的研究在 PAH 背景下确定了一种有前途的新药。