Clinical trials are under way in the United States to test new uses for angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, as lab researchers around the world continue to compile evidence of further possibilities for the antihypertensive drugs. Meanwhile, a paper to be published this month presents a detailed theory that ACE functions at the start of a signaling pathway common to major diseases that are otherwise unrelated.1
At Wake Forest University, internal medicine professor Marco Pahor is heading a trial of ACE inhibitors and novel cardiovascular risk factors in 290 people over age 55. New indications for the drugs could follow, such as prevention of age-related muscle wasting and physical disabilities in which inflammation may play a role. "Our hypotheses are that ACE inhibitors favorably affect inflammation, fibrinolysis, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction," Pahor says.
At the University of Pittsburgh, a trial involving 70 patients is attempting to determine whether ACE ...
