Search

Background: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a major public health concern due to its high prevalence, severe impact on individuals' health and quality of life, and substantial economic burden. Pharmacological interventions are still limited with numbers needed-to-treat ranging from 6 (cilostazol) to 50 (aspirin, statins, and vorapaxar)., Objectives: This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded crossover interventional trial aims to measure the effect of L-citrulline and tetrahydrobiopterin (H 4 Bip) on walking distance in patients with PAD, stratified by plasma levels of asymmetric dimethyl L-arginine (ADMA), the endogenous inhibitor of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase., Methods: We measured preinterventional ADMA levels in 51 patients with PAD in Australia and Germany with mean changes in absolute claudication distance (dACD) as the primary outcome upon orally supplementing the L-arginine precursor, L-citrulline (3 g) twice daily for 12 weeks, and, in one arm, additionally H 4 Bip (0.45 g) once per day for a further 2 weeks., Results: Preinterventional ADMA levels were pathological (>0.4 μM) in 34 patients. Supplementation with L-citrulline significantly increased the mean plasma levels of both L-citrulline and L-arginine, from 41.8 ± 2.7 μmol/l to 246.3 ± 67.3 μmol/l (P = 0.004) and from 75.2 ± 4.2 μmol/l to 119.2 ± 6.9 μmol/l (P < 0.0001) respectively, when compared with placebo. dACD in % of control was significantly improved by L-citrulline vs placebo (20.11% ± 4.50% vs 5.73% ± 2.74%, respectively; P = 0.011). Further addition of H 4 Bip increased the mean percentage dACD to 28.15% ± 6.84% (P = 0.021), but only in patients with preinterventional pathological ADMA levels., Conclusions: L-citrulline and, when ADMA levels are pathological, H 4 Bip are effective nutritional interventions in patients with PAD warranting further confirmatory trials., Competing Interests: Funding Support and Author Disclosures This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia (595964), the European Research Council Advanced Investigator programme (RadMed), the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 777111 (REPO-TRIAL), the REPO4EU project funded by the European Union under grant agreement No. 101057619. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This reflects only the author's view, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. The funders had no role in the design, data collection, statistical analysis, writing of this manuscript, or decision to publish. The authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose., (Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stands as a pivotal regulatory element in intracellular signalling pathways, mediating the formation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) and impacting diverse physiological processes across tissues. Increased formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is widely recognized to modulate cGMP signalling. Indeed, oxidatively damaged, and therefore inactive sGC, contributes to poor vascular reactivity and more severe neurological damage upon stroke. However, the specific involvement of cGMP in redox signalling remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate a significant cGMP-dependent reduction of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species upon sGC activation under hypoxic conditions, independent of any potential scavenger effects. Importantly, this reduction is directly mediated by downregulating NADPH oxidase (NOX) 4 and 5 during reperfusion. Using an in silico simulation approach, we propose a mechanistic link between increased cGMP signalling and reduced ROS formation, pinpointing NF-κB1 and RELA/p65 as key transcription factors regulating NOX4/5 expression. In vitro studies revealed that p65 translocation to the nucleus was reduced in hypoxic human microvascular endothelial cells following sGC activation. Altogether, these findings unveil the intricate regulation and functional implications of sGC, providing valuable insights into its biological significance and ultimately therapeutic potential., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: M.H.E., and A.I.C. are inventors of international patent publications WO/2021/167458 titled "Use of a soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator or of a combination of a sGC stimulator and an sGC activator for conditions wherein the heme group of sGC is oxidized or wherein sGC is deficient in heme., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.)

Activation of the kallikrein-kinin system promotes vascular leakage, inflammation, and neurodegeneration in ischemic stroke. Inhibition of plasma kallikrein (PK) - a key component of the KKS - in the acute phase of ischemic stroke has been reported to reduce thrombosis, inflammation, and damage to the blood-brain barrier. However, the role of PK during the recovery phase after cerebral ischemia is unknown. To this end, we evaluated the effect of subacute PK inhibition starting from day 3 on the recovery process after transient middle artery occlusion (tMCAO). Our study demonstrated a protective effect of PK inhibition by reducing infarct volume and improving functional outcome at day 7 after tMCAO. In addition, we observed reduced thrombus formation in cerebral microvessels, fewer infiltrated immune cells, and an improvement in blood-brain barrier integrity. This protective effect was facilitated by promoting tight junction reintegration, reducing detrimental matrix metalloproteinases, and upregulating regenerative angiogenic markers. Our findings suggest that PK inhibition in the subacute phase might be a promising approach to accelerate the post-stroke recovery process., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The role of inflammation and immunity in the pathomechanism of neurodegenerative diseases has become increasingly relevant within the past few years. In this context, the NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome plays a crucial role in the activation of inflammatory responses by promoting the maturation and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1β and interleukin-18. We hypothesized that the interplay between nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) may play a critical role in the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and subsequent inflammatory responses. After priming mixed glial cultures with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), cells were stimulated with ATP, showing a significant reduction of IL1-β release in NOX4 and Nrf2 KO mice. Importantly, NOX4 inhibition using GKT136901 also reduced IL-1β release, as in NOX4 KO mixed glial cultures. Moreover, we measured NOX4 and NLRP3 expression in wild-type mixed glial cultures following LPS treatment, observing that both increased after TLR4 activation, while 24 h treatment with tert-butylhydroquinone, a potent Nrf2 inducer, significantly reduced NLRP3 expression. LPS administration resulted in significant cognitive impairment compared to the control group. Indeed, LPS also modified the expression of NLRP3 and NOX4 in mouse hippocampus. However, mice treated with GKT136901 after LPS impairment showed a significantly improved discrimination index and recovered the expression of inflammatory genes to normal levels compared with wild-type animals. Hence, we here validate NOX4 as a key player in NLRP3 inflammasome activation, suggesting NOX4 pharmacological inhibition as a potent therapeutic approach in neurodegenerative diseases.

Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. X.J., P.W. and J.B. are Co-Editors in Chief of Neuroprotection, S.L. is the journal’s managing editor. All other authors are members of the editorial board. They were blinded from reviewing or making decisions on the manuscript. The article was subject to the journal’s standard procedures, with peer review handled independently of this Editorial Board member and their research groups. P.W. is a founder and holds equity IntraArt, LLC. Ti-com, LLC.

Despite years of encouraging translational research, ischemic stroke still remains as one of the highest unmet medical needs nowadays, causing a tremendous burden to health care systems worldwide. Following an ischemic insult, a complex signaling pathway emerges leading to highly interconnected thrombotic as well as neuroinflammatory signatures, the so-called thromboinflammatory cascade. Here, we thoroughly review the cell-specific and time-dependent role of different immune cell types, i.e., neutrophils, macrophages, T and B cells, as key thromboinflammatory mediators modulating the neuroinflammatory response upon stroke. Similarly, the relevance of platelets and their tight crosstalk with a variety of immune cells highlights the relevance of this cell-cell interaction during microvascular dysfunction, neovascularization, and cellular adhesion. Ultimately, we provide an up-to-date overview of therapeutic approaches mechanistically targeting thromboinflammation currently under clinical translation, especially focusing on phase I to III clinical trials., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other forms of dementia are together a leading cause of disability and death in the aging global population, imposing a high personal, societal, and economic burden. They are also among the most prominent examples of failed drug developments. Indeed, after more than 40 AD trials of anti-amyloid interventions, reduction of amyloid-β (Aβ) has never translated into clinically relevant benefits, and in several cases yielded harm. The fundamental problem is the century-old, brain-centric phenotype-based definitions of diseases that ignore causal mechanisms and comorbidities. In this hypothesis article, we discuss how such current outdated nosology of dementia is a key roadblock to precision medicine and articulate how Network Medicine enables the substitution of clinicopathologic phenotypes with molecular endotypes and propose a new framework to achieve precision and curative medicine for patients with neurodegenerative disorders.

Platelets are key mediators of thrombus formation and inflammation during the acute phase of ischaemic stroke. Particularly, the platelet glycoprotein (GP) receptors GPIbα and GPVI have been shown to mediate platelet adhesion and activation in the ischaemic brain. GPIbα and GPVI blockade could reduce infarct volumes and improve functional outcome in mouse models of acute ischaemic stroke, without concomitantly increasing intracerebral haemorrhage. However, the functional role of platelets during long-term stroke recovery has not been elucidated so far. Thus, we here examined the impact of platelet depletion on post-stroke recovery after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) in adult male mice. Platelet depleting antibodies or isotype control were applied from day 3-28 after tMCAO in mice matched for infarct size. Long-term functional recovery was assessed over the course of 28 days by behavioural testing encompassing motor and sensorimotorical functions, as well as anxiety-like or spontaneous behaviour. Whole brain flow cytometry and light sheet fluorescent microscopy were used to identify resident and infiltrated immune cell types, and to determine the effects of platelet depletion on the cerebral vascular architecture, respectively. We found that delayed platelet depletion does not improve long-term functional outcome in the tMCAO stroke model. Immune cell abundance, the extent of thrombosis and the organisation of the cerebral vasculature were also comparable between platelet-depleted and control mice. Our study demonstrates that, despite their critical role in the acute stroke setting, platelets appear to contribute only marginally to tissue reorganisation and functional recovery at later stroke stages., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 The Authors.)

Differential gene expression normalised to a single housekeeping (HK) is used to identify disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets. HK gene selection is often arbitrary, potentially introducing systematic error and discordant results. Here we examine these risks in a disease model of brain hypoxia. We first identified the eight most frequently used HK genes through a systematic review. However, we observe that in both ex-vivo and in vivo, their expression levels varied considerably between conditions. When applying these genes to normalise expression levels of the validated stroke target gene, inducible Nox4, we obtained opposing results. As an alternative tool for unbiased HK gene selection, software tools exist but are limited to individual datasets lacking genome-wide search capability and user-friendly interfaces. We, therefore, developed the HouseKeepR algorithm to rapidly analyse multiple gene expression datasets in a disease-specific manner and rank HK gene candidates according to stability in an unbiased manner. Using a panel of de novo top-ranked HK genes for brain hypoxia, but not single genes, Nox4 induction was consistently reproduced. Thus, differential gene expression analysis is best normalised against a HK gene panel selected in an unbiased manner. HouseKeepR is the first user-friendly, bias-free, and broadly applicable tool to automatically propose suitable HK genes in a tissue- and disease-dependent manner., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Despite decades of promising preclinical validation and clinical translation, ischemic stroke still remains as one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Within its complex pathophysiological signatures, thrombosis and inflammation, that is, thromboinflammation, are highly interconnected processes leading to cerebral vessel occlusion, inflammatory responses, and severe neuronal damage following the ischemic event. Hence, we here review the most recent updates on thromboinflammatory-dependent mediators relevant after stroke focusing on recent discoveries on platelet modulation, a potential regulation of the innate and adaptive immune system in thromboinflammation, utterly providing a thorough up-to-date overview of all therapeutic approaches currently undergoing clinical trial.

Background: Inflammasomes are cytosolic multiprotein complexes which, upon assembly, activate the maturation and secretion of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18. However, participation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in ischaemic stroke remains controversial. Our aims were to determine the role of NLRP3 in brain ischaemia, and explore the mechanism involved in the potential protective effect of the neurovascular unit., Methods: WT and NLRP3 knock-out mice were subjected to ischaemia by middle cerebral artery occlusion (60 min) with or without treatment with MCC950 at different time points post-stroke. Brain injury was measured histologically with 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining., Results: We identified a time-dependent dual effect of NLRP3. While neither the pre-treatment with MCC950 nor the genetic approach (NLRP3 KO) proved to be neuroprotective, post-reperfusion treatment with MCC950 significantly reduced the infarct volume in a dose-dependent manner. Importantly, MCC950 improved the neuro-motor function and reduced the expression of different pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and TNF-α), NLRP3 inflammasome components (NLRP3 and pro-caspase-1), protease expression (MMP9), and endothelial adhesion molecules (ICAM and VCAM). We observed a marked protection of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which was also reflected in the recovery of the tight junction proteins (ZO-1 and Claudin-5). Additionally, MCC950 produced a reduction of the CCL2 chemokine in blood serum and in brain tissue, which lead to a reduction in the immune cell infiltration., Conclusions: These findings suggest that post-reperfusion NLRP3 inhibition may be an effective acute therapy for protecting the blood-brain barrier in cerebral ischaemia with potential clinical translation., (© 2021 The British Pharmacological Society.)

Aggregates of the microtubule-associated protein tau are a common marker of neurodegenerative diseases collectively termed as tauopathies, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia. Therapeutic strategies based on tau have failed in late stage clinical trials, suggesting that tauopathy may be the consequence of upstream causal mechanisms. As increasing levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may trigger protein aggregation or modulate protein degradation and, we had previously shown that the ROS producing enzyme NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) is a major contributor to cellular autotoxicity, this study was designed to evaluate if NOX4 is implicated in tauopathy. Our results show that NOX4 is upregulated in patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration and AD patients and, in a humanized mouse model of tauopathy induced by AVV-Tau P301L brain delivery. Both, global knockout and neuronal knockdown of the Nox4 gene in mice, diminished the accumulation of pathological tau and positively modified established tauopathy by a mechanism that implicates modulation of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway (ALP) and, consequently, improving the macroautophagy flux. Moreover, neuronal-targeted NOX4 knockdown was sufficient to reduce neurotoxicity and prevent cognitive decline, even after induction of tauopathy, suggesting a direct and causal role for neuronal NOX4 in tauopathy. Thus, NOX4 is a previously unrecognized causative, mechanism-based target in tauopathies and blood-brain barrier permeable specific NOX4 inhibitors could have therapeutic potential even in established disease., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

For complex diseases, most drugs are highly ineffective, and the success rate of drug discovery is in constant decline. While low quality, reproducibility issues, and translational irrelevance of most basic and preclinical research have contributed to this, the current organ-centricity of medicine and the 'one disease-one target-one drug' dogma obstruct innovation in the most profound manner. Systems and network medicine and their therapeutic arm, network pharmacology, revolutionize how we define, diagnose, treat, and, ideally, cure diseases. Descriptive disease phenotypes are replaced by endotypes defined by causal, multitarget signaling modules that also explain respective comorbidities. Precise and effective therapeutic intervention is achieved by synergistic multicompound network pharmacology and drug repurposing, obviating the need for drug discovery and speeding up clinical translation., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests No interests are declared., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Traditional drug discovery faces a severe efficacy crisis. Repurposing of registered drugs provides an alternative with lower costs and faster drug development timelines. However, the data necessary for the identification of disease modules, i.e. pathways and sub-networks describing the mechanisms of complex diseases which contain potential drug targets, are scattered across independent databases. Moreover, existing studies are limited to predictions for specific diseases or non-translational algorithmic approaches. There is an unmet need for adaptable tools allowing biomedical researchers to employ network-based drug repurposing approaches for their individual use cases. We close this gap with NeDRex, an integrative and interactive platform for network-based drug repurposing and disease module discovery. NeDRex integrates ten different data sources covering genes, drugs, drug targets, disease annotations, and their relationships. NeDRex allows for constructing heterogeneous biological networks, mining them for disease modules, prioritizing drugs targeting disease mechanisms, and statistical validation. We demonstrate the utility of NeDRex in five specific use-cases., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been correlated with almost every human disease. Yet clinical exploitation of these hypotheses by pharmacological modulation of ROS has been scarce to nonexistent. Are ROS, thus, irrelevant for disease? No. One key misconception in the ROS field has been its consideration as a rather detrimental metabolic by-product of cell metabolism, and thus, any approach eliminating ROS to a certain tolerable level would be beneficial. We now know, instead, that ROS at every concentration, low or high, can serve many essential signaling and metabolic functions. This likely explains why systemic, nonspecific antioxidants have failed in the clinic, often with neutral and sometimes even detrimental outcomes. Recently, drug development has focused, instead, on identifying and selectively modulating ROS enzymatic sources that in a given constellation cause disease while leaving ROS physiologic signaling and metabolic functions intact. As sources, the family of NADPH oxidases stands out as the only enzyme family solely dedicated to ROS formation. Selectively targeting disease-relevant ROS-related proteins is already quite advanced, as evidenced by several phase II/III clinical trials and the first drugs having passed registration. The ROS field is expanding by including target enzymes and maturing to resemble more and more modern, big data-enhanced drug discovery and development, including network pharmacology. By defining a disease based on a distinct mechanism, in this case ROS dysregulation, and not by a symptom or phenotype anymore, ROS pharmacology is leaping forward from a clinical underperformer to a proof of concept within the new era of mechanism-based precision medicine. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Despite being correlated to almost every human disease, nearly no ROS modulator has been translated to the clinics yet. Here, we move far beyond the old-fashioned misconception of ROS as detrimental metabolic by-products and suggest 1) novel pharmacological targeting focused on selective modulation of ROS enzymatic sources, 2) mechanism-based redefinition of diseases, and 3) network pharmacology within the ROS field, altogether toward the new era of ROS pharmacology in precision medicine., (Copyright © 2020 by The Author(s).)

Dysfunctional reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling is considered an important disease mechanism. Therapeutically, non-selective scavenging of ROS by antioxidants, however, has failed in multiple clinical trials to provide patient benefit. Instead, pharmacological modulation of disease-relevant, enzymatic sources of ROS appears to be an alternative, more promising and meanwhile successfully validated approach. With respect to targets, the family of NADPH oxidases (NOX) stands out as main and dedicated ROS sources. Validation of the different NOX isoforms has been mainly through genetically modified rodent models and is lagging behind in other species. It is unclear whether the different NOX isoforms are sufficiently distinct to allow selective pharmacological modulation. Here we show for five widely used NOX inhibitors that isoform selectivity can be achieved, although individual compound specificity is as yet insufficient. NOX1 was most potently (IC 50 ) targeted by ML171 (0.1 μM); NOX2, by VAS2870 (0.7 μM); NOX4, by M13 (0.01 μM) and NOX5, by ML090 (0.01 μM). In addition, some non-specific antioxidant and assay artefacts may limit the interpretation of data, which included, surprisingly, the clinically advanced NOX inhibitor, GKT136901. In a human ischemic blood-brain barrier hyperpermeability model where genetic target validation is not an option, we provide proof-of-principle that pharmacological target validation for different NOX isoforms is possible by applying an inhibitor panel at IC 50 concentrations. Moreover, our findings encourage further lead optimization and development efforts for isoform-selective NOX inhibitors in different indications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None to declare., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background and Purpose: Ischaemic stroke is a leading cause of death, disability, and a high unmet medical need. Post-reperfusion inflammation and an up-regulation of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), an upstream sensor of innate immunity, are associated with poor outcome in stroke patients. Here, we identified the therapeutic effect of targeting the LPS/TLR4 signal transduction pathway., Experimental Approach: We tested the effect of the TLR4 inhibitor, eritoran (E5564) in different in vitro ischaemia-related models: human organotypic cortex culture, rat organotypic hippocampal cultures, and primary mixed glia cultures. We explored the therapeutic window of E5564 in the transient middle cerebral artery occlusion model of cerebral ischaemia in mice., Key Results: In vivo, administration of E5564 1 and 4 hr post-ischaemia reduced the expression of different pro-inflammatory chemokines and cytokines, infarct volume, blood-brain barrier breakdown, and improved neuromotor function, an important clinically relevant outcome. In the human organotypic cortex culture, E5564 reduced the activation of microglia and ROS production evoked by LPS., Conclusion and Implications: TLR4 signalling has a causal role in the inflammation associated with a poor post-stroke outcome. Importantly, its inhibition by eritoran (E5564) provides neuroprotection both in vitro and in vivo, including in human tissue, suggesting a promising new therapeutic approach for ischaemic stroke., (© 2019 The British Pharmacological Society.)

Drug discovery faces an efficacy crisis to which ineffective mainly single-target and symptom-based rather than mechanistic approaches have contributed. We here explore a mechanism-based disease definition for network pharmacology. Beginning with a primary causal target, we extend this to a second using guilt-by-association analysis. We then validate our prediction and explore synergy using both cellular in vitro and mouse in vivo models. As a disease model we chose ischemic stroke, one of the highest unmet medical need indications in medicine, and reactive oxygen species forming NADPH oxidase type 4 ( Nox4 ) as a primary causal therapeutic target. For network analysis, we use classical protein-protein interactions but also metabolite-dependent interactions. Based on this protein-metabolite network, we conduct a gene ontology-based semantic similarity ranking to find suitable synergistic cotargets for network pharmacology. We identify the nitric oxide synthase ( Nos1 to 3 ) gene family as the closest target to Nox4 Indeed, when combining a NOS and a NOX inhibitor at subthreshold concentrations, we observe pharmacological synergy as evidenced by reduced cell death, reduced infarct size, stabilized blood-brain barrier, reduced reoxygenation-induced leakage, and preserved neuromotor function, all in a supraadditive manner. Thus, protein-metabolite network analysis, for example guilt by association, can predict and pair synergistic mechanistic disease targets for systems medicine-driven network pharmacology. Such approaches may in the future reduce the risk of failure in single-target and symptom-based drug discovery and therapy., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement: H.H.H.W.S. is a cofounder of a biotech company, Vasopharm, engaged in the development of small-molecule NOS inhibitors, currently in stage III clinical development. However, H.H.H.W.S. has no operative role in the company and holds less than 1% of shares., (Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

Ischemic stroke is a predominant cause of disability worldwide, with thrombolytic or mechanical removal of the occlusion being the only therapeutic option. Reperfusion bears the risk of an acute deleterious calcium-dependent breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. Its mechanism, however, is unknown. Here, we identified type 5 NADPH oxidase (NOX5), a calcium-activated, ROS-forming enzyme, as the missing link. Using a humanized knockin (KI) mouse model and in vitro organotypic cultures, we found that reoxygenation or calcium overload increased brain ROS levels in a NOX5-dependent manner. In vivo, postischemic ROS formation, infarct volume, and functional outcomes were worsened in NOX5-KI mice. Of clinical and therapeutic relevance, in a human blood-barrier model, pharmacological NOX inhibition also prevented acute reoxygenation-induced leakage. Our data support further evaluation of poststroke recanalization in the presence of NOX inhibition for limiting stroke-induced damage.

Network medicine utilizes common genetic origins, markers and co-morbidities to uncover mechanistic links between diseases. These links can be summarized in the diseasome, a comprehensive network of disease-disease relationships and clusters. The diseasome has been influential during the past decade, although most of its links are not followed up experimentally. Here, we investigate a high prevalence unmet medical need cluster of disease phenotypes linked to cyclic GMP. Hitherto, the central cGMP-forming enzyme, soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), has been targeted pharmacologically exclusively for smooth muscle modulation in cardiology and pulmonology. Here, we examine the disease associations of sGC in a non-hypothesis based manner in order to identify possibly previously unrecognized clinical indications. Surprisingly, we find that sGC, is closest linked to neurological disorders, an application that has so far not been explored clinically. Indeed, when investigating the neurological indication of this cluster with the highest unmet medical need, ischemic stroke, pre-clinically we find that sGC activity is virtually absent post-stroke. Conversely, a heme-free form of sGC, apo-sGC, was now the predominant isoform suggesting it may be a mechanism-based target in stroke. Indeed, this repurposing hypothesis could be validated experimentally in vivo as specific activators of apo-sGC were directly neuroprotective, reduced infarct size and increased survival. Thus, common mechanism clusters of the diseasome allow direct drug repurposing across previously unrelated disease phenotypes redefining them in a mechanism-based manner. Specifically, our example of repurposing apo-sGC activators for ischemic stroke should be urgently validated clinically as a possible first-in-class neuroprotective therapy., Competing Interests: H.H.H.W.S. receive a research grant from Bayer Healthcare, the patent owner of BAY58-2667 and BAY60-2770. The remaining authors declare no competing financial interests.

Ischemic injury represents the most frequent cause of death and disability, and it remains unclear why, of all body organs, the brain is most sensitive to hypoxia. In many tissues, type 4 NADPH oxidase is induced upon ischemia or hypoxia, converting oxygen to reactive oxygen species. Here, we show in mouse models of ischemia in the heart, brain, and hindlimb that only in the brain does NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) lead to ischemic damage. We explain this distinct cellular distribution pattern through cell-specific knockouts. Endothelial NOX4 breaks down the BBB, while neuronal NOX4 leads to neuronal autotoxicity. Vascular smooth muscle NOX4, the common denominator of ischemia within all ischemic organs, played no apparent role. The direct neuroprotective potential of pharmacological NOX4 inhibition was confirmed in an ex vivo model, free of vascular and BBB components. Our results demonstrate that the heightened sensitivity of the brain to ischemic damage is due to an organ-specific role of NOX4 in blood-brain-barrier endothelial cells and neurons. This mechanism is conserved in at least two rodents and humans, making NOX4 a prime target for a first-in-class mechanism-based, cytoprotective therapy in the unmet high medical need indication of ischemic stroke., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2017 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) provides an ideal framework to establish multi-disciplinary research networks. COST Action BM1203 (EU-ROS) represents a consortium of researchers from different disciplines who are dedicated to providing new insights and tools for better understanding redox biology and medicine and, in the long run, to finding new therapeutic strategies to target dysregulated redox processes in various diseases. This report highlights the major achievements of EU-ROS as well as research updates and new perspectives arising from its members. The EU-ROS consortium comprised more than 140 active members who worked together for four years on the topics briefly described below. The formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) is an established hallmark of our aerobic environment and metabolism but RONS also act as messengers via redox regulation of essential cellular processes. The fact that many diseases have been found to be associated with oxidative stress established the theory of oxidative stress as a trigger of diseases that can be corrected by antioxidant therapy. However, while experimental studies support this thesis, clinical studies still generate controversial results, due to complex pathophysiology of oxidative stress in humans. For future improvement of antioxidant therapy and better understanding of redox-associated disease progression detailed knowledge on the sources and targets of RONS formation and discrimination of their detrimental or beneficial roles is required. In order to advance this important area of biology and medicine, highly synergistic approaches combining a variety of diverse and contrasting disciplines are needed., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Promising results have been reported in preclinical stroke target validation for pharmacological principles that disrupt the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-post-synaptic density protein-95-neuronal nitric oxide synthase complex. However, post-synaptic density protein-95 is also coupled to potentially neuroprotective mechanisms. As post-synaptic density protein-95 inhibitors may interfere with potentially neuroprotective mechanisms and sufficient validation has often been an issue in translating basic stroke research, we wanted to close that gap by comparing post-synaptic density protein-95 inhibitors with NOS1(-/-) mice and a NOS inhibitor. We confirm the deleterious role of NOS1 in stroke both in vivo and in vitro, but find three pharmacological post-synaptic density protein-95 inhibitors to be therapeutically ineffective., (© The Author(s) 2016.)

Agmatine, an endogenous neuromodulator, is a potential candidate to constitute an adjuvant/monotherapy for the management of depression. A recent study by our group demonstrated that agmatine induces Nrf2 and protects against corticosterone effects in a hippocampal neuronal cell line. The present study is an extension of this previous study by assessing the antidepressant-like effect of agmatine in an animal model of depression induced by corticosterone in mice. Swiss mice were treated simultaneously with agmatine or imipramine at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg/day (p.o.) and corticosterone for 21 days and the daily administrations of experimental drugs were given immediately prior to corticosterone (20 mg/kg/day, p.o.) administrations. Wild-type C57BL/6 mice (Nrf2 (+/+)) and Nrf2 KO (Nrf2 (-/-)) were treated during 21 days with agmatine (0.1 mg/kg/day, p.o.) or vehicle. Twenty-four hours after the last treatments, the behavioral tests and biochemical assays were performed. Agmatine treatment for 21 days was able to abolish the corticosterone-induced depressive-like behavior and the alterations in the immunocontent of mature BDNF and synaptotagmin I, and in the serotonin and glutamate levels. Agmatine also abolished the corticosterone-induced changes in the morphology of astrocytes and microglia in CA1 region of hippocampus. In addition, agmatine treatment in control mice increased noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine levels, CREB phosphorylation, mature BDNF and synaptotagmin I immunocontents, and reduced pro-BDNF immunocontent in the hippocampus. Agmatine's ability to produce an antidepressant-like effect was abolished in Nrf2 (-/-) mice. The present results reinforce the participation of Nrf2 in the antidepressant-like effect produced by agmatine and expand literature data concerning its mechanisms of action.

Therapies that modulate cyclic guanosine-3'-5'-monophosphate (cGMP) have emerged as one of the most successful areas in recent drug discovery and clinical pharmacology. Historically, their focus has been on cardiovascular disease phenotypes; however, cGMP's relevance is likely to go beyond this rather limited organ-based set of indications. Moreover, the multitude of targets and their apparent interchangeability is a proof-of-concept of network pharmacology., (© 2016 American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.)

The data presented in this article supports the rat brain sample preparation procedure previous to its injection into the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) system to monitor levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline, glutamic acid, γ-aminobutyric acid, dopamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid, and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol. In addition, we describe the method validation assays (such as calibration curve, lower limit of quantification, precision and accuracy intra- and inter-day, selectivity, extraction recovery and matrix effect, stability, and carry-over effect) according to the United States Food and Drug Administration and European Medicine Agency to measure in one step different neurotransmitters and their metabolites. The data supplied in this article is related to the research study entitled: "Simultaneous determination of 8 neurotransmitters and their metabolite levels in rat brain using liquid chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry: application to the murine Nrf2 model of depression" (Wojnicz et al. 2016) [1].

Analysis of neurotransmitters and their metabolites is useful for the diagnosis of central nervous system diseases. A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method with protein precipitation was developed to monitor levels of adrenaline (AD), noradrenaline (NA), glutamic acid (Glu), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), dopamine (DA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA), and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) in rat brain tissue. Isoprenaline was used as an internal standard (IS). Neurotransmitters and metabolites were eluted with a reverse phase column under gradient conditions through a mobile phase consisting of 0.2% formic acid water solution/acetonitrile. The compounds were detected and quantified by LC-MS/MS with positive or negative electrospray ionization, which operates in multiple-reaction monitoring mode. The method was linear or polynomial (R(2)>0.99) for AD, NA, Glu, GABA, DA, 5-HT, 5-HIAA, and MHPG in the range of 0.25-200, 0.5-200, 250-20,000, 250-20,000, 0.25-200, 10-3000, 1-50, and 1-50ng/mL, respectively. The validation assays for accuracy and precision, matrix effect, extraction recovery, stability and carry-over of the samples for neurotransmitters and metabolites were consistent with the requirements of regulatory agencies. The method enables rapid quantification of neurotransmitters and their metabolites and has been applied in the nuclear factor (erythroid 2-derived)-like 2 (Nrf2) knockout mouse model of depression., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Significance: Oxidative stress is suggested to be a disease mechanism common to a wide range of disorders affecting human health. However, so far, the pharmacotherapeutic exploitation of this, for example, based on chemical scavenging of pro-oxidant molecules, has been unsuccessful., Recent Advances: An alternative emerging approach is to target the enzymatic sources of disease-relevant oxidative stress. Several such enzymes and isoforms have been identified and linked to different pathologies. For some targets, the respective pharmacology is quite advanced, that is, up to late-stage clinical development or even on the market; for others, drugs are already in clinical use, although not for indications based on oxidative stress, and repurposing seems to be a viable option., Critical Issues: For all other targets, reliable preclinical validation and drug ability are key factors for any translation into the clinic. In this study, specific pharmacological agents with optimal pharmacokinetic profiles are still lacking. Moreover, these enzymes also serve largely unknown physiological functions and their inhibition may lead to unwanted side effects., Future Directions: The current promising data based on new targets, drugs, and drug repurposing are mainly a result of academic efforts. With the availability of optimized compounds and coordinated efforts from academia and industry scientists, unambiguous validation and translation into proof-of-principle studies seem achievable in the very near future, possibly leading towards a new era of redox medicine.

Significance: Enhanced levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been associated with different disease states. Most attempts to validate and exploit these associations by chronic antioxidant therapies have provided disappointing results. Hence, the clinical relevance of ROS is still largely unclear., Recent Advances: We are now beginning to understand the reasons for these failures, which reside in the many important physiological roles of ROS in cell signaling. To exploit ROS therapeutically, it would be essential to define and treat the disease-relevant ROS at the right moment and leave physiological ROS formation intact. This breakthrough seems now within reach., Critical Issues: Rather than antioxidants, a new generation of protein targets for classical pharmacological agents includes ROS-forming or toxifying enzymes or proteins that are oxidatively damaged and can be functionally repaired., Future Directions: Linking these target proteins in future to specific disease states and providing in each case proof of principle will be essential for translating the oxidative stress concept into the clinic.