Investigation of the beneficial esomeprazole effects in vitro on endothelial cells incubated with plasma from rats and women with preeclampsia

• Grant number: 24/01830-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Pharmacology - Cardiorenal Pharmacology
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Alan Candido Dias Junior
• Grantee: Beatriz Dragoneti Jorge
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Preeclampsia is a gestational hypertensive syndrome that affects 1.5% of pregnancies in Brazil. It is one of the main causes of maternal-fetal mortality worldwide, especially in low-income countries. Although its etiology is still unknown, its pathophysiology is characterized by oxidative stress and deficient trophoblastic invasion in the spiral arteries, which would give later rise to the umbilical cord. The deficient cell invasion causes the resistance and caliber of the artery to remain smaller, causing uteroplacental ischemia, placental hypoperfusion, endothelial damage, proteinuria, and maternal hypertension. Esomeprazole is a drug from the class of proton pump inhibitors used to treat gastric discomfort, including in pregnant women. The drug had positive results in preliminary studies, suggesting it as a possible treatment for preeclampsia, prolonging pregnancy, and decreasing the expression of pathological markers of the syndrome. Therefore, this study proposes to investigate whether the benefits of esomeprazole in relation to preeclampsia also extend to other factors of the syndrome, assessing whether the treatment will increase nitric oxide levels and decrease the production of reactive oxygen species in cultures of human umbilical cord endothelial cells (HUVECs), incubated with plasma samples from rats subjected to the surgical model of preeclampsia, induced by the reduction of uteroplacental perfusion pressure (RUPP), as well as HUVECs incubated with plasma samples from women with preeclampsia from the Hospital das Clínicas de Ribeirão Preto.