Scientists noticed that a medication that was already used to treat high blood pressure, losartan, improved the condition that he had COPD, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Then, Professor Robson dos Santos reasoned the following: “Now, this medicine is an antagonist of the effects of angiotensin 2. It stimulates the dilation of the vessels, increases sodium excretion and water with the body.”
By doing this in the endothelium, that is, in the inner lining of the countless small vessels inside the lungs and reducing the presence of liquid that would cause these organs to swell, thus spoke, the medicine that, in principle, for blood pressure would help them to remove it. They are the most difficult – and anyone who has COPD knows how difficult this is!
But could not this effect be related to the natural competitor angiotensin 2 in this game? “That’s why we started studying the effect of angiotensin 1-7 on the lungs. asthmafor example, I would say that it is almost magical”, observes Professor Robson dos Santos. “It seems that it is against eosinophils and stimulates macrophages”, he says, giving mention two types of immune cells.
On the other hand, Macrophages have another anti-inflammatory function, in addition to their role in phagocytizing bacteria – remember what we learned in school, these cells swallow germs like a “pacman” of old video games?.
“At first, that was it. We saw in animal models that this peptide improved non-infectious conditions. Then, we studied it in pneumonia caused by bacteria called pseudomomas and, later on forward, in viruses “, recalls the professor.
Content has already caused controversy
According to Robson dos Santos, one of the main hypotheses to explain the power of Sars-CoV-2 to destroy our health was that it would increase angiotensin 2 and decrease angiotensin 1-7, in saw which is very unfavorable to us. all.
2024-10-10 14:55:00
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