Pharmacologic Treatments for Pulmonary Hypertension: Exploring Pharmacogenomics

Abstract

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a disease with multiple etiologies and is categorized into five broad groups. Of these groups, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is the most studied and, therefore, all of the currently available drug classes (prostacyclin analogs, endothelin receptor antagonists and phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors) were developed to treat PAH. Thus, limited treatment data exist for the less-studied non-PAH forms of PH. Pharmacogenomics can be a tool to better understand the pathways involved in PH, as well as to improve personalization of therapy. However, little pharmacogenomic research has been carried out on this disease. New treatments for PH are on the horizon, deriving from both repurposed currently available drugs and novel therapeutics.

Keywords:

• endothelin receptor antagonist
• pharmacogenetics
• pharmacogenomics
• phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor
• prostacyclin analog
• pulmonary hypertension

Financial & competing interests disclosure

RF Machado has received institutional grants from Actelion and United Therapeutics, and has served as a consultant for Gilead. His contribution to this article was supported by NIH grants R01HL111656 and K23HL098454. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Notes

COPD: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Data taken from [3].