In a recent article for Pulmonary Hypertension news the author, Patricia Inácio, PhD, reported on a study which shows that a natural substance isolated from a houseplant (Ardisia crenata, also known as coral berry), named “Fr” holds promise as a potential treatment to prevent and even reverse pulmonary arterial hypertension.
The study, titled “Pharmacological Gq inhibition induces strong pulmonary vasorelaxation and reverses pulmonary hypertension,” was published in EMBO Molecular Medicine on July 8, 2024 (link)
Researchers found that Fr induces strong relaxation in isolated pulmonary vessels from mice, pigs, and human lung samples. In mouse pulmonary vessels, FR’s relaxing effect surpassed individual pulmonary arterial hypertension therapies and matched the effect of a triple combination therapy. In a mouse model of pulmonary hypertension, FR relaxed blood vessels by 90% within eight minutes and prevented pulmonary vessel wall thickening and increased heart pressure with repeated application.
Read more at this link on Pulmonary Hypertension News
See also press release by one of the authors of the study here
PHOTO CREDIT: KENPEI – KENPEI’s photo, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=444490