Protein Mimetic Promotes Blood Vessel Relaxation

Researchers have found that a mimetic of the last protein in a complex signaling pathway, HSP20, can relax smooth muscle cells and may lead to the development of a drug that promotes blood vessel relaxation, preventing dangerous spasms. The finding was reported in the May 8, 2003, online edition of the Journal of the FASEB (Federation of American Society for Experimental Biology).

The signaling pathway that causes relaxation in smooth muscle cells involves many different proteins, but the last step is the phosphorylation of HSP20. Molecules have been developed that affect earlier steps in the pathway, but these are ineffective if a problem occurs later. Severe spasm of blood vessels contributes to the failure of bypass surgeries and to strokes following the rupture of an aneurysm in the brain.

The mimetic was developed by researchers at Arizona State University (ASU, Tempe, USA). It consists of a 13-amino acid stretch of the protein attached to a protein transduction domain, a peptide that allows the mimetic to enter cells. In pigs, the mimetic caused the rings of muscle to relax in a dose-dependent fashion. Mass spectrometry confirmed that the mimetic induced relaxation by its own action.

"You've got all those signaling pathways, but, boom, you can bypass them by putting in a mimetic of the protein that's the effector molecule,” said primary investigator Colleen Brophy, research professor of bioengineering at ASU.




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