Abstract
Hypertension has become a growing public health concern worldwide. In fact, hypertension is commonly associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Currently, oligonucleotide drugs have proven to be promising therapeutic agents for various diseases. In the present study, we aimed to demonstrate that a herbal small RNA (sRNA), XKC-sRNA-h3 (B55710460, F221. I000082.B11), exhibits potent antihypertensive effects by targeting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) in mice. When compared with captopril, oral administration of the sphingosine (d18:1)-XKC-sRNA-h3 bencaosome more effectively prevented angiotensin II-induced hypertensive cardiac damage and alleviated kidney injury in mice. Such findings indicated that XKC-sRNA-h3 may be a novel orally available ACE inhibitor type oligonucleotide drug for hypertension.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81788101), the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2021-I2M-1-022), the 111 Project (BP0820029) and the CAMS Endowment Fund (2021-CAMS-JZ001).
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Tang, K., Wang, X., Zhao, Y. et al. Oral administration of the herbal oligonucleotide XKC-sRNA-h3 prevents angiotensin II-induced hypertension in mice. Sci. China Life Sci. 66, 2370–2379 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-022-2275-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-022-2275-3