Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0162871 (abdominal aortic aneurysm)
 8,664 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Statins may reduce abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) progression. We sought to measure how atorvastatin (AT) treatment might modulate matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression and/or activity in human AAA. Tissue from human AAAs at surgical repair was obtained from patients who were either not on statins (NST, n = 19) or treated with AT (n = 19). Immunoblots measured expression and zymography measured activity. Expression of most proteins was greater in the central compared with distal AAA region. Matrix metalloproteinase 1, MMP2, MMP3, MMP9, Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase (TIMP2), TIMP3, TIMP4, or total Sma Mothers Against Decapentaplegia (SMAD2) expression did not differ with treatment. There was a trend toward reduced MMP8 and TIMP1 expression and MMP2 zymographic activity in the AT-treatment group. In contrast, AT-treated samples had significantly reduced MMP13 (P = .02), latent-transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta (P = .02), and phospho-SMAD2 (P = .029) expression than NST-treated samples. We conclude that the AT-mediated decrease in MMP expression and activity reduces TGF-beta signaling in the central region of human AAAs.
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PMID:Atorvastatin modulates matrix metalloproteinase expression, activity, and signaling in abdominal aortic aneurysms. 2003 37

There is compelling evidence indicating that some members of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family play important roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and related vascular and cardiac conditions such as atherosclerotic plaque rupture leading to myocardial infarction, heart failure after myocardial infarction, neointima formation following angioplasty, and abdominal aortic aneurysm. Studies have shown that administration of MMP inhibitors can deter some of these conditions in experimental animal models, but few pertinent human clinical trials have been reported to date. Clinical studies of broad-spectrum MMP inhibitors in cancers and arthritis, however, have reported considerable side effects that are likely to be related to the lack of selectivity of these inhibitors. Since different members of the MMP family can have divergent and even opposing functions, it is believed that selective MMP inhibitors that specifically target particular MMPs that are key in the disease pathogenesis will likely have greater efficacy and less adverse effects. In recent years there has been accumulating evidence indicating an important role of MMP8 in atherosclerosis and the associated conditions mentioned above. This article will review findings from studies examining MMP8 in relation to these conditions and discuss rationale of targeting MMP8 as a potential therapeutic strategy.
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PMID:Putative targeting of matrix metalloproteinase-8 in atherosclerosis. 2544 39