Angiotensin-(1-7) and angiotensin-(1-9): assessment as therapeutic targets in acute vascular injury and remodelling

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Heart disease is commonly caused by the buildup of fat or plaques in blood vessels that deliver blood to the heart, causing them to become blocked. To unblock blood vessels doctors use two approaches, in one a balloon is inserted into the blockage and inflated to clear it and in another a piece of vein is removed from the patients leg and implanted into the heart to bypass the blockage. Both approaches are effective to treat the patients, however damage to the blood vessel by the inflated balloon or to the vein used to bypass the blockage by the high blood pressure in the heart cause these treatments to fail, by triggering overgrowth of the blood vessels causing them to become blocked again. Currently, there is a need for new treatments to prevent this failure. We have identified a new potential therapeutic target that may be able to prevent this overgrowth. The body produces specific hormones which travel via the bloodstream and engage with receptors which contribute to the normal function of blood vessels, the heart and kidney. The main hormone from this system, angiotensin II, can become overactive and contribute to the development of cardiovascular diseases, including the adverse vascular overgrowth which blocks blood vessels. We have identified an alternative hormone in this pathway which can block the growth of the cells in blood vessels and potentially prevent the vessels from becoming blocked. Here, we will investigate this hormone more fully to understand how it functions and to test whether it has therapeutic benefit in animal models of vessel blockage. This will help us understand the function better and highlight whether it is a suitable molecular to develop into a therapeutic drug in the future.