Omapatrilat increases renal endothelin in deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt hypertensive rats.

Vasopeptidase inhibitors are a new class of antihypertensive drugs that are single molecules having dual inhibitory action on angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and neutral endopeptidase (NEP). The best known drug in this class is omapatrilat, which has been proposed to be more efficacious than ACE inhibitors because of its ability to inhibit NEP and prevent the breakdown of atrial peptides and bradykinin. However, survival of endothelin (ET) may also be enhanced and therefore, NEP inhibitors may have limited efficacy under conditions of low renin and high ET production.

Vasopeptidase inhibition with omapatrilat increases fluid and protein microvascular permeability in cat skeletal muscle.

Background: Vasopeptidase inhibition is a new antihypertensive approach combining inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and neutral endopeptidase (NEP), but severe oedema, mainly angio-oedema, has been reported. As ACE and NEP catalyse degradation of the permeability-increasing peptide bradykinin, and NEP also catalyses degradation of permeability-increasing peptides such as atrial natriuretic peptide, substance P, endothelin-1 and angiotensin II, vasopeptidase inhibition may increase microvascular permeability.

Objective: To analyse the effects of vasopeptidase inhibition on permeability.

Enalapril attenuates endothelin-1-induced hypertension via increased kinin survival.

Recent studies have shown that angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors attenuate endothelin-1 (ET-1)-induced hypertension, but the mechanisms for this effect have not been clarified. Initial experiments were conducted to contrast the effect of the ACE inhibitor enalapril, the combined ACE-neutral endopeptidase inhibitor omapatrilat, and the angiotensin II receptor antagonist candesartan on the hypertensive and renal response to ET-1 in anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats. Acute intravenous infusion of ET-1 (10 pmol x kg(-1) x min(-1)) for 60 min significantly increased mean arterial pressure (MAP) from 125 +/- 8 to 145 +/- 8 mmHg (P < 0.

Cyclooxygenase-2 contributes to elevated renin in the early postnatal period in rats.

We asked whether cyclooxygenase (COX) activity controls the renin-angiotensin system in the postnatal period. During kidney development, renin peaked at postnatal days 0-1 at the mRNA, tissue protein [renal renin concentration (RRC)], and plasma renin concentration (PRC) levels and was widely expressed along preglomerular vessels. PRC and renin mRNA expression was elevated until weaning in the 4th postnatal week compared with adult rats.