J Pharm Pharmacogn Res 2(Suppl. 1): S25, 2014
Special supplement with the abstract book of LATINFARMA 2013
Conference
C 006: BETWEEN HYPERTENSION AND PAIN
Henrique Ferreira S.
School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, Department of Pharmacology, Campus USP, Brazil.Abstract
In the present communication Prof Sergio Henrique Ferreira describes his personal trajectory in the Department of Pharmacology from the Ribeirão Preto Medical School. The discovery of bradykinin, Prof Rocha e Silva just received a sample of that he had previously described when he incubated Jararaca Venom together with blood plasma. The synthetic bradykinin however was much weaker than the blood plasma product, thus suggesting the presence in the Jararaca venom of a potentiating factor, named by us BPF, i.e. bradykinin potentiating factor. Thus, plasma contained an enzyme that inactivates bradykinin and by coincidence it was the same enzyme that was responsible for the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II. Angiotensin II is the biological factor responsible for hypertensive activity of this peptide. The smallest peptide of BPF, PCALys-Tryp-Ala –Pro, was used as basis for the industrial development of the potent anti-hypertensive drugs, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors. During the years of 64-67 working in London in the department of Prof J.R. Vane, I participated in the discovery of the mechanism of action of aspirin-like-drugs. I proposed that its analgesic action was due to the prevention of the stimulation of primary sensory neurons by mediators, particularly by prostaglandins. Recently we found that opiates have a peripheral analgesic effect by means of the stimulation of the Arginine/NO/GMPc pathway. This mechanism may stimulate the development of new analgesics.