Recent advances in lung neuropeptide biology using neprilysin and VIP knockout mice

Pulmonary hypertension (PHTN) is a major clinical problem, which develops in response to vascular injury or rarely arises spontaneously. The field of neuropeptide biology has been a rich source of biomarkers (like brain natriuretic peptide; BNP) and treatment strategies (like endothelin receptor antagonists; ETRAs) for PHTN. We describe two knockout mouse models from this area, one involving the metallopeptidase, neprilysin (NEP) and the other the neuropeptide, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), that are providing new mechanistic insights into smoke- and hypoxia-induced (secondary) and idiopathic (primary) PHTN, respectively.

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