Identification of c‐Jun N‐Terminal Kinase as a Therapeutic Target for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Abstract:  Despite the advances in molecular cell biology, identification of a therapeutic target in a given disease still poses a significant challenge. Here we report a strategy for identification of the therapeutic target in abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). We screened for various signaling molecules in human AAA samples and identified c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) as a prominently activated molecule. The JNK pathway‐oriented transcriptome analyses revealed that activation of JNK leads to enhancement of the activity of matrix metalloproteinases and, concurrently, suppression of the extracellular matrix biosynthesis, suggesting that JNK may represent a novel therapeutic target in AAA.

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