Does Nature has the Cure for Hypertension?: Endothelin Receptors as Drug Targets

Nature remains the major source of drugs with complex structures and novel biological activities. The search for bioactive molecules from nature remains the most important strategy to find new medicinal agents. Recent findings indicate that hypertension is a major health burden in economically developing countries. Thus a source of less expensive treatments needs to be identified. Current hypertension pharmacotherapy consists in administration of drugs capable of interacting with one or several molecular mediators. Within the group of drugs acting as inhibitors of receptors involved in blood pressure regulation, endothelin receptor antagonists have been the most prominent class containing drugs which were first found in nature. Thus the present review focuses on endothelin receptor as drug targets.