Is renal protection with calcium antagonists possible?
Organ protection is the main goal in the treatment of high blood pressure. Consequently, this protective capacity should be one of the main characteristics of any drug used in the treatment of hypertension. A renal protective agent should protect the kidney from intrinsic renal vasoconstrictors and exogenous agents, and should also protect, or at least delay, the decline in renal function in the presence of renal insufficiency, by mechanisms other than increasing glomerular filtration pressure. Verapamil protects mesangial cells from the reduction in surface area induced by endothelin in vitro. In human subjects, it minimises the renal impairment provoked by the administration of cisplatin, and in mice it protects superficial cortical blood flow from the vasoconstriction elicited by cyclosporin. Finally, verapamil may protect from glomerulosclerosis as a result of its capacity to inhibit mesangial cell replication.