What is it about?
The vascular system plays an essential role in carrying oxygen, nutrients, and immune cells throughout the body, but too much vascular permeability, or space between the cells lining the blood vessels, can have devastating results in severe infectious diseases. In this study, we identified a drug that suppress vascular permeability, and showed that it reduces mortality in mouse infectious disease models.
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Why is it important?
There is an urgent need to develop novel drugs to reduce the mortality from severe infectious diseases, including Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Although current drugs effectively suppress the proliferation of pathogens, immune cell activation, and inflammatory cytokine functions, they cannot completely reduce mortality from severe infectious diseases. In this study, we have proposed another type of drug that suppresses vascular permeability as a potential therapeutic agent against the diseases.
Perspectives
The drugs targeting vascular permeability in combination with existing drugs could contribute to the reduction of mortality in patients with severe infectious diseases induced by pre-existing and emerging infectious diseases.
Yoshiaki Okada
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Upregulation of Robo4 expression by SMAD signaling suppresses vascular permeability and mortality in endotoxemia and COVID-19 models, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2213317120.
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