Clinical Trials Targeting Metabolism in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Abstract

Metabolic derangement is a pathologic feature of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).1 Metabolic abnormalities such as aerobic glycolysis and impaired fatty acid oxidation are consistently observed across different animal models of PAH. Importantly, altered metabolism in human PAH and experimental models is not restricted to the pulmonary vasculature, raising the possibility that PAH is a systemic metabolic disease.2 For example, lipid accumulation is present in the myocardium and skeletal muscle of humans with PAH and the right ventricle exhibits increased glucose uptake compared with matched controls. As a result of these observations, targeting metabolic dysfunction has emerged as an important therapeutic approach for patients with PAH.3 This article will review key aspects of metabolism in PAH, existing metabolic data in humans, and will describe completed and ongoing clinical trials targeting metabolic dysfunction in patients with PAH.