Aarhus University Seal

Current Knowledge about the New Drug Firibastat in Arterial Hypertension

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperReviewResearchpeer-review

DOI

Hypertension significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Currently, effective standard pharmacological treatment is available in the form of diuretics, ACE inhibitors, angi-otensin II receptor blockers and calcium channel blockers. These all help to decrease blood pressure in hypertensive patients, each with their own mechanism. Recently, firibastat, a new first‐in‐class antihypertensive drug has been developed. Firibastat is a prodrug that when crossing the blood-brain barrier, is cleaved into two active EC33 molecules. EC33 is the active molecule that inhibits the enzyme aminopeptidase A. Aminopeptidase A converts angiotensin II to angiotensin III. Angiotensin III usually has three central mechanisms that increase blood pressure, so by inhibiting this enzyme activity, a decrease in blood pressure is seen. Firibastat is an antihypertensive drug that affects the brain renin angiotensin system by inhibiting aminopeptidase A. Clinical trials with firibastat have been performed in animals and humans. No severe adverse effects related to firibastat treatment have been reported. Results from studies show that firibastat is generally well tolerated and safe to use in hypertensive patients. The aim of this review is to investigate the current knowledge about firibastat in the treatment of hypertension.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1459
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume23
Issue3
Number of pages13
ISSN1661-6596
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

    Research areas

  • Brain RAS, Firibastat, Hypertension

See relations at Aarhus University Citationformats

ID: 230975312