Advances in the research of sulfur dioxide and pulmonary hypertension

Xin Liu; He Zhou; Hongsheng Zhang; Hongfang Jin; Yan He

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1282403

Advances in the research of sulfur dioxide and pulmonary hypertension

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Oct 12:14:1282403. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1282403. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xin Liu¹, He Zhou², Hongsheng Zhang¹, Hongfang Jin^{3

4}, Yan He¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatric Cardiac Center, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
² Departments of Medicine and Physiology, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, United States.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Vascular Homeostasis and Remodeling, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a fatal disease caused by progressive pulmonary vascular remodeling (PVR). Currently, the mechanisms underlying the occurrence and progression of PVR remain unclear, and effective therapeutic approaches to reverse PVR and PH are lacking. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the endogenous sulfur dioxide (SO₂)/aspartate transaminase system has emerged as a novel research focus in the fields of PH and PVR. As a gaseous signaling molecule, SO₂ metabolism is tightly regulated in the pulmonary vasculature and is associated with the development of PH as it is involved in the regulation of pathological and physiological activities, such as pulmonary vascular cellular inflammation, proliferation and collagen metabolism, to exert a protective effect against PH. In this review, we present an overview of the studies conducted to date that have provided a theoretical basis for the development of SO₂-related drug to inhibit or reverse PVR and effectively treat PH-related diseases.

Keywords: aspartate transaminase; gaseous signaling molecule; pulmonary hypertension; pulmonary vascular remodeling; sulfur dioxide.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Science and Technology Development Fund of Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, grant number AZYZR202203.