Renin-angiotensin system inhibitors mitigate radiation pneumonitis by activating ACE2-angiotensin-(1-7) axis via NF-κB/MAPK pathway.
Sci Rep
; 13(1): 8324, 2023 05 23.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37221286
ABSTRACT
Radiation pneumonitis (RP) affects both patients and physicians during radiation therapy for lung cancer. To date, there are no effective drugs for improving the clinical outcomes of RP. The activation of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) improves experimental acute lung injury caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, acid inhalation, and sepsis. However, the effects and underlying mechanisms of ACE2 in RP remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers on RP and ACE2/angiotensin-(1-7)/Mas receptor pathway activation. We found that radiotherapy decreased the expression of ACE2 and that overexpression of ACE2 alleviated lung injury in an RP mouse model. Moreover, captopril and valsartan restored ACE2 activation; attenuated P38, ERK, and p65 phosphorylation; and effectively mitigated RP in the mouse model. Further systematic retrospective analysis illustrated that the incidence of RP in patients using renin-angiotensin system inhibitors (RASis) was lower than that in patients not using RASis (18.2% vs. 35.8% at 3 months, p = 0.0497). In conclusion, the current findings demonstrate that ACE2 plays a critical role in RP and suggest that RASis may be useful potential therapeutic drugs for RP.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Radiation Pneumonitis
/
Acute Lung Injury
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Sci Rep
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: