Ann Pharmacol Pharm | Volume 3, Issue 4 | Perspective | Open Access
Ronald P Rubin* and Suzanne G Laychock
Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences University at Buffalo, USA
*Correspondance to: Ronald P Rubin
Fulltext PDFPrior to the groundbreaking studies of a few pharmacologists, the treatment of hypertension had loomed a formidable obstacle to physicians. The discovery of new directions in anti-hypertensive therapy created a paradigm for drug action at specific cellular sites. This review recounts the early work that led to the successful treatment of this common malady. Hexamethonium represented a milestone in the treatment of hypertension when it was developed by William Paton and Eleanor Zaimis. James Black, in his discovery of propranolol, made one of the most important contributions to clinical medicine and pharmacology in the twentieth century. Albrecht Fleckenstein’s finding that calcium antagonist’s block excitation-contraction coupling represented another major advance in the pharmacotherapy of anti-hypertensive agents. The common strategy speaks to achieving selectivity of drug action by applying basic physiological and pharmacological principles to the actions of various compounds on specific sites or receptors. The implications of these diverse discoveries were far reaching, spurred new directions in anti-hypertensive therapy, and created a paradigm for drug action at specific cellular sites. The work underscores the remarkable advances made in treating hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases when key factors in regulating blood pressure were recognized and exploited.
Eleanor Zaimis; Albrecht Fleckenstein; Methonium; Nicotinic receptors; Calcium channels; Anti-hypertensive therapy
Rubin RP, Laychock SG. The Birth of Antihypertensive Therapy. Ann Pharmacol Pharm. 2018; 3(4): 1157.