Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a life-threatening lung disorder with towering prevalence and risk for future has been gradually rising worldwide. Even, no specific medications are available for pulmonary hypertension; various classes of treatment based upon the origin and magnitude of hypertension are still used for the treatment of PH. Consideration of molecular or signaling modulation is the imperative approach that can offer a new notion for prevalent pharmacotherapeutic agents. Instead of concurrent targets, including endothelin receptor antagonists (ETA/ETB), phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor (PDF-5), calcium channel blockers, anticoagulants, diuretics, and long acting prostacyclin analog, recent scientific reports revealed the numerous potential alternative therapeutic approaches that can significantly target the pathological signaling alteration associated with PH. Understanding precise molecular cascade involved in PH can be useful for designing preclinical animal experiments and human clinical trials to evaluate target specific novel therapeutic interventions for the treatment of PH. In this review, we discussed the possible molecular signaling involved in the pathogenesis of PH and detailed account of the current status of medications employed for the treatment of PH. Moreover, the newly identified potential target sites and alternative approaches for treating the PH have been discussed.
Keywords: molecular signaling; pathophysiology; potential target sites; pulmonary hypertension; vascular endothelial dysfunction.
© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.