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Potential Benefits of Rho-kinase Inhibition in Arterial Hypertension

  • Hypertension Management and Antihypertensive Drugs (HM Siragy and B Waeber, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Arterial hypertension is a major health problem, accounting for 12 % of the global death rate. A large proportion of patients treated for high blood pressure do not reach target blood pressure values. The question arises if new antihypertensive drugs could improve present hypertension treatment. Rho-kinases (ROCKs) are ubiquitously expressed serine/threonine kinases and involved in a variety of cell functions. They contribute to the pathogenesis of human and experimental hypertension. Pharmacological ROCK inhibition has been shown to effectively lower blood pressure in patients and experimental animals. Progress has been made towards the understanding on how non-selective ROCK inhibitors lower arterial pressure and efforts are currently undertaken to develop ROCK inhibitors to improve their specificity and isoenzyme selectivity. If introduction of ROCK inhibitors for the treatment of high blood pressure can significantly advance currently available options of antihypertensive pharmacotherapy awaits further experimental and clinical research.

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Olaf Grisk declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

With regard to the author’s research cited in this paper, all institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. In addition, all procedures were followed in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 and 2008.

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  1. Department of Physiology, University of Greifswald, Greifswalder Str. 11c, 17495, Greifswald, Karlsburg, Germany

    Olaf Grisk

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Grisk, O. Potential Benefits of Rho-kinase Inhibition in Arterial Hypertension. Curr Hypertens Rep 15, 506–513 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11906-013-0373-0

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