Sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate for pulmonary arterial hypertension: emerging therapeutic option.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare disease characterised by a progressive increase of pulmonary vascular resistance and pulmonary arterial pressure, leading to right ventricle hypertrophy and death (1,2). The last decade has seen major advances in the understanding of the pathobiology of PAH along with discovery of several therapeutic options. Pharmacological agents targeting the endothelin (ET)-1 (ET-1 receptor antagonists, such as bosentan or sitaxentan), the nitric oxide (sildenafil, type 5 phosphodiesterase inhibitor), or the prostacyclin (epoprostenol, iloprost) pathways have shown benefits for patients with PAH (3). However, despite symptomatic improvement these treatments failed to improve the long-term survival and their use is hampered by either side-effects or inconvenient drug administration routes (4). Indeed, none of the currently available therapies is curative, so the search for novel therapeutic strategies continues.