The Medical College of Wisconsin has received a four-year, $1.14 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study how the chemical compound tetrahydrobiopterin influences the development of vascular disease.
Jeannette Vasquez-Vivar, Ph.D., associate professor of biophysics, is principal investigator for the grant. Dr. Vasquez-Vivar will investigate mechanisms altering normal tetrahydrobiopterin supply in the endothelium which is essential for enzymatic nitric oxide (NO) production.
NO is an important component of normal vascular function. It serves as a messenger that can “inform” the smooth muscle in the blood vessel to relax, thereby dilating the vessel and increasing blood flow. This process depends on the availability of tetrahydrobiopterin, however, and decreasing tetrahydrobiopterin supply impairs NO’s ability to perform this task.
A decrease in tetrahydrobiopterin is also linked to blood vessel oxidative injury, which is a feature of vascular atherosclerosis, a build-up of plaque in the arterial blood vessels sometimes referred to as “hardening of the arteries.”
According to Dr. Vasquez-Vivar, “understanding these fundamental mechanisms should lead to improved strategies in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases.”
This competitive renewal award will fund years five through nine of the project. The study is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Matthew Picklo at the University of North Dakota, Dr. Nickolas Alp at the Wellcome Trust Centre in Oxford, UK, and Dr. Pavel Martasek at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
For more information, contact:
Toranj Marphetia (toranj@mcw.edu)
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