Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:4.6.1.2 (guanylate cyclase)
 8,497 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Nitric oxide (NO), produced by either constitutive or inducible isoforms of NO synthase (cNOS or iNOS), influences myocardial inotropic and chronotropic responses. This pathway has been studied using NO donors or NOS inhibitors or by immune-mediated stimulation of iNOS. Although inhibition of constitutive NO activity in the heart does not influence indices of myocardial contractility, NO donors, in some species and preparations, may exert a negative inotropic effect as well as an enhancement of diastolic relaxation. The best documented cardiac action of NO is inhibition of the positive inotropic and chronotropic responses to beta-adrenergic receptor stimulation. Basal NO production, presumable via cNOS, appears to exert a mild tonic inhibition of beta-adrenergic responses. On the other hand, excessive NO production mediated by iNOS may contribute to the myocardial depression and beta-adrenergic hyporesponsiveness associated with conditions such as sepsis, myocarditis, cardiac transplant rejection, and dilated cardiomyopathy. Muscarinic cholinergic stimulation of the heart appears to stimulate NO production that mediates, at least partially, parasympathetic slowing of heart rate and inhibition of beta-adrenergic contractility. NO-stimulated production of 3',5'-cyclic guanosine monophosphate via guanylyl cyclase accounts for many of the observed physiological actions of NO. 3',5'-Cyclic guanosine monophosphate inhibits the beta-adrenergic-stimulated increase in the slow-inward calcium current and reduces the calcium affinity of the contractile apparatus, actions that could contribute to a negative inotropic effect, an abbreviation of contraction, and an enhancement of diastolic relaxation. Biochemical, immunocytochemical, and molecular biological techniques have been used to show the presence of both cNOS and iNOS within the myocardium. cNOS is expressed in myocytes, endothelial cells, and neurons in the myocardium, and there is evidence for iNOS in myocytes, small vessel endothelium, vascular smooth muscle cells, and immune cells that infiltrate the heart. Taken together, these observations suggest that NO influences normal cardiac physiology and may play an important role in the pathophysiology of certain disease states associated with cardiac dysfunction.
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PMID:Role of nitric oxide in the regulation of myocardial function. 756 4

The present study aimed to characterize the inotropic and vasodilatory properties of the K-ATP channel opener nicorandil (NIC) in isolated human cardiac tissue. For comparison, the Ca+2 channel blockers diltiazem (DIL) and nifedipine (NIF) have been studied. Concentration-dependent effects of NIC, DIL and NIF on the force of contraction (FOC) and the vascular tone have been studied on left ventricular papillary muscle strips (dilated cardiomyopathy, New York Heart Association Class IV, n = 20; nonfailing, donor hearts, n = 4), on right auricular trabeculae (nonfailing, n = 5) and on precontracted (prostaglandin F2 alpha: 0.3, 0.5 or 1 mumol/l) isolated human coronary artery rings (cardiac transplantation, n = 15). NIC, DIL and NIF concentration-dependently reduced the FOC of the papillary muscle preparations. However, the IC25 for the negative inotropic effect was significantly higher for NIC compared to DIL and NIF. The maximal negative inotropic effects of NIC, DIL and NIF (100 mumol/l) were -48.2 +/- 4.1, -92.9 +/- 0.9 and -93.4 +/- 1.4% of the basal FOC. The negative inotropic actions of NIC were similar in the human failing and the nonfailing ventricular and in the right atrial myocardium. Whereas pretreatment with methylene blue, an inhibitor of guanylyl cyclase, had no effect on the negative inotropic action of NIC, it was almost abolished by glibenclamide, a selective antagonist of the ATP-dependent K channels. NIC, DIL and NIF relaxed the coronary artery rings with 97.1 +/- 0.5, 90.7 +/- 0.9 and 96.4 +/- 0.7% of maximal relaxation (papaverine, 100 mumol/l). The rank order of vasodilatory potency was NIF > NIC > DIL. In conclusion, NIC is as effective as DIL and NIF in relaxing human coronary artery rings. However, NIC showed significantly lower negative inotropic effects when compared with the Ca+2 channel antagonists. The negative inotropic action of NIC is probably due to an interaction with the ATP-dependent K channels. In addition, activation of guanylyl cyclase does not seem to exert any negative inotropic action in the human myocardium.
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PMID:Inotropic and coronary vasodilatory actions of the K-adenosine triphosphate channel modulator nicorandil in human tissue. 896 44

Ventricular myocytes are known to show increased expression of the cardiac hormones atrial and brain natriuretic peptide (ANP and BNP, respectively) in response to pathological stress on the heart, but their function during the progression of nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy remains unclear. In this study, we crossed a mouse model of dilated cardiomyopathy and sudden death, which we generated by cardioselectively overexpressing a dominant-negative form of the transcriptional repressor neuron-restrictive silencer factor (dnNRSF Tg mice), with mice lacking guanylyl cyclase-A (GC-A), a common receptor for ANP and BNP, to assess the effects of endogenously expressed natriuretic peptides during progression of the cardiomyopathy seen in dnNRSF Tg mice. We found that dnNRSF Tg;GC-A(-/-) mice were born normally, but then most died within 4 wk. The survival rates among dnNRSF Tg;GC-A(+/-) and dnNRSF Tg mice were comparable, but dnNRSF Tg;GC-A(+/-) mice showed greater systolic dysfunction and a more severe cardiomyopathic phenotype than dnNRSF Tg mice. Collectively, our findings suggest that endogenous ANP/BNP protects the heart against the death and progression of pathological remodeling in a mouse model of dilated cardiomyopathy and sudden death.
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PMID:Endogenous cardiac natriuretic peptides protect the heart in a mouse model of dilated cardiomyopathy and sudden death. 1934 56