Cancer drug could help patients with debilitating cardiovascular condition

UK and Canadian scientists have shown how patients with a rare cardiovascular condition could be treated with a drug normally used to treat cancer. Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a life-threatening disease that affects the blood vessels of the lung and causes heart failure. In a paper the team from Imperial College London and the University of Alberta report promising results from an early-phase clinical trial in a small group of patients with PAH already under treatment with approved drugs, as well as lung tissue from PAH patients. They found that Dichloroacetic acid (DCA) - which has been trialed in tackling brain tumor growth in cancer trials - can decrease the blood pressure in the lungs of patients with the condition and improve their ability to walk. The researchers say that the study is the first to demonstrate that a key enzyme in the mitochondria - the energy-producing units of cells - is a viable target for drug treatment in humans with PAH. Narrowing blood vessels. In PAH, mitochondrial activity is disturbed.