Sérgio Henrique Ferreira
Encyclopedia
Sérgio Henrique Ferreira (b. April 10, 1934, Franca
, São Paulo
), Brazil
, Brazilian physician
and pharmacologist, noted for his discovery of Bradykinin potentiating factor, which led to better anti-hypertension
drugs.
Ferreira received his M.D.
from the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo
(USP) and soon became staff member of the same school, where he is presently a member of the Department of Pharmacology
. His research training in pharmacology initiated in this Department with Prof. Maurício Rocha e Silva
, the discoverer of bradykinin
. While working on this subject, he discovered a family of peptide
s present in the venom of a Brazilian snake, Bothrops jararaca
, which inhibited kininase activity and strongly potentiated the effects of bradykinin in vivo and in vitro. This factor was named bradykinin potentiating factor, BPF. In 1968, with the collaboration of Dr. Lewis Joel Greene
, from the Brookhaven National Laboratory
, U.S.
, he isolated several pharmacologically active peptides responsible for the activity of BPF. Using those peptides, was demonstrated a general parallelism between bradykinin potentiation and inhibition of Angiotensin
I conversion. Subsequently, his group elucidated the structure of the smallest peptide, and using the synthetic pentapeptide, demonstrated its ability to potentiate bradykinin and to inhibit the conversion of angiotensin I in vivo in experimental models of hypertension. His work in this area paved the way for the development of a new class of antihypertensive drugs, the converting enzymes inhibitors (ACE), by Squibb scientists. For this work with the Bothrops
peptide he received the CIBA Award for Hypertension Research of 1983, together with Drs. E. Ondetti and D. Cushman from Squibb laboratories.
While working in London
in the early seventies with John R. Vane (Nobel prize
in Medicine, 1983), he participated in the discovery of the inhibition of the synthesis of prostaglandins by aspirin
-like drugs. At that time, he proposed that the mechanism of the analgesic action of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) was due to the prevention of pain receptor sensitization
which results from an inhibition of the synthesis of prostaglandins. This hypothesis was supported by further work from his laboratory and from many other investigators. His studies on the basic mechanisms involved in the development of inflammatory hyperalgesia
led to the discovery that a select class of analgesics like metamizole
, in contrast to the classical non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs, are able to counteract the ongoing sensitization of the primary sensory neuron via the stimulation of the arginine
/nitric oxide
pathway. He recently characterized a phenomenon described as retrograde sensitization of the primary sensory neuron, which emphasizes the importance of the peripheral component of the inflammatory pain. His group made a relevant contribution to the role of bradykinin and of cytokine
s in the development of inflammatory hyperalgesia. He found that among the cytokines, interleukin
1 b mediates the endogenous release of prostaglandins and IL-8 is responsible for the development of the sympathetic hyperalgesia. In this area he described an antagonist of IL-1 that is now being developed as a model a new class of analgesics.
His contributions to science have been extensively recognized. Dr. Ferreira holds since 1995 the National Order of Scientific Merit in the Great Cross level, and received several awards and medals, such as from the Third World Academy of Sciences
(1990 and 1992), the Mexican Prize of Science and Technology (199), the Rheimboldt-Hauptmann Prize of the University of São Paulo (2001) and the Péter Murányi Prize (2002). He is in the editorial board of several international journals, is foreign member to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
.
Dr. Ferreira is also a noted scientific leader in Brazil. He helped to found and is one of the editors-in-chief of the most influential international biomedical scientific journal, Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research
, is a member of the Brazilian National Academy of Sciences and of the Brazilian Council of Science and Technology. He is founder and past president of the Brazilian Society for Pharmacology and Therapeutics and of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC).
Franca
-Demography:*Total: 328.473 inhabitants on July 1, 2006.** Urban: 324.138** Rural: 6.999*Demographic density : 473,80*Child mortality until 1 year : 12,66 = 1,26%*Life expectancy : 73,03*Fertility : 2,26...
, São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...
), Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Brazilian physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and pharmacologist, noted for his discovery of Bradykinin potentiating factor, which led to better anti-hypertension
Hypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
drugs.
Ferreira received his M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
from the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo
Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto
Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto is a medical school of the University of São Paulo located in the city of Ribeirão Preto, state of São Paulo, Brazil, founded 1952...
(USP) and soon became staff member of the same school, where he is presently a member of the Department of Pharmacology
Pharmacology
Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...
. His research training in pharmacology initiated in this Department with Prof. Maurício Rocha e Silva
Maurício Rocha e Silva
Maurício Oscar da Rocha e Silva was a Brazilian physician, biomedical scientist and pharmacologist...
, the discoverer of bradykinin
Bradykinin
Bradykinin is a peptide that causes blood vessels to dilate , and therefore causes blood pressure to lower. A class of drugs called ACE inhibitors, which are used to lower blood pressure, increase bradykinin further lowering blood pressure...
. While working on this subject, he discovered a family of peptide
Peptide
Peptides are short polymers of amino acid monomers linked by peptide bonds. They are distinguished from proteins on the basis of size, typically containing less than 50 monomer units. The shortest peptides are dipeptides, consisting of two amino acids joined by a single peptide bond...
s present in the venom of a Brazilian snake, Bothrops jararaca
Bothrops jararaca
Bothrops jararaca is a venomous pit viper species found in southern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina. The species name is derived from the Tupi words yarará and ca, which means "large snake." Within its range it is often abundant and is an important cause of snakebite...
, which inhibited kininase activity and strongly potentiated the effects of bradykinin in vivo and in vitro. This factor was named bradykinin potentiating factor, BPF. In 1968, with the collaboration of Dr. Lewis Joel Greene
Lewis Joel Greene
Lewis Joel Greene is an American Brazilian biochemist, scientist, university professor and editor of the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research....
, from the Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory , is a United States national laboratory located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, he isolated several pharmacologically active peptides responsible for the activity of BPF. Using those peptides, was demonstrated a general parallelism between bradykinin potentiation and inhibition of Angiotensin
Angiotensin
Angiotensin, a peptide hormone, causes blood vessels to constrict, and drives blood pressure up. It is part of the renin-angiotensin system, which is a major target for drugs that lower blood pressure. Angiotensin also stimulates the release of aldosterone, another hormone, from the adrenal cortex...
I conversion. Subsequently, his group elucidated the structure of the smallest peptide, and using the synthetic pentapeptide, demonstrated its ability to potentiate bradykinin and to inhibit the conversion of angiotensin I in vivo in experimental models of hypertension. His work in this area paved the way for the development of a new class of antihypertensive drugs, the converting enzymes inhibitors (ACE), by Squibb scientists. For this work with the Bothrops
Bothrops
Bothrops is a genus of venomous pitvipers found in Central and South America. The generic name is derived from the Greek words bothros and ops that mean "pit" and "eye" or "face"; an allusion to the heat-sensitive loreal pit organs. Members of this genus are responsible for more human deaths in the...
peptide he received the CIBA Award for Hypertension Research of 1983, together with Drs. E. Ondetti and D. Cushman from Squibb laboratories.
While working in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the early seventies with John R. Vane (Nobel prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in Medicine, 1983), he participated in the discovery of the inhibition of the synthesis of prostaglandins by aspirin
Aspirin
Aspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication. It was discovered by Arthur Eichengrun, a chemist with the German company Bayer...
-like drugs. At that time, he proposed that the mechanism of the analgesic action of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) was due to the prevention of pain receptor sensitization
Sensitization
Sensitization is an example of non-associative learning in which the progressive amplification of a response follows repeated administrations of a stimulus. An everyday example of this mechanism is the repeated tonic stimulation of peripheral nerves that will occur if a person rubs his arm...
which results from an inhibition of the synthesis of prostaglandins. This hypothesis was supported by further work from his laboratory and from many other investigators. His studies on the basic mechanisms involved in the development of inflammatory hyperalgesia
Hyperalgesia
Hyperalgesia is an increased sensitivity to pain, which may be caused by damage to nociceptors or peripheral nerves. Temporary increased sensitivity to pain also occurs as part of sickness behavior, the evolved response to infection.-Types:...
led to the discovery that a select class of analgesics like metamizole
Metamizole
Metamizole sodium or dipyrone is a powerful analgesic and antipyretic. It is marketed under various trade names, including Algozone, Algocalmin, Analgin, Dipirona, Novalgin, Neo-Melubrina and Optalgin. Metamizole was first synthesized by the German company Hoechst AG in 1920, and its mass...
, in contrast to the classical non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs, are able to counteract the ongoing sensitization of the primary sensory neuron via the stimulation of the arginine
Arginine
Arginine is an α-amino acid. The L-form is one of the 20 most common natural amino acids. At the level of molecular genetics, in the structure of the messenger ribonucleic acid mRNA, CGU, CGC, CGA, CGG, AGA, and AGG, are the triplets of nucleotide bases or codons that codify for arginine during...
/nitric oxide
Nitric oxide
Nitric oxide, also known as nitrogen monoxide, is a diatomic molecule with chemical formula NO. It is a free radical and is an important intermediate in the chemical industry...
pathway. He recently characterized a phenomenon described as retrograde sensitization of the primary sensory neuron, which emphasizes the importance of the peripheral component of the inflammatory pain. His group made a relevant contribution to the role of bradykinin and of cytokine
Cytokine
Cytokines are small cell-signaling protein molecules that are secreted by the glial cells of the nervous system and by numerous cells of the immune system and are a category of signaling molecules used extensively in intercellular communication...
s in the development of inflammatory hyperalgesia. He found that among the cytokines, interleukin
Interleukin
Interleukins are a group of cytokines that were first seen to be expressed by white blood cells . The term interleukin derives from "as a means of communication", and "deriving from the fact that many of these proteins are produced by leukocytes and act on leukocytes"...
1 b mediates the endogenous release of prostaglandins and IL-8 is responsible for the development of the sympathetic hyperalgesia. In this area he described an antagonist of IL-1 that is now being developed as a model a new class of analgesics.
His contributions to science have been extensively recognized. Dr. Ferreira holds since 1995 the National Order of Scientific Merit in the Great Cross level, and received several awards and medals, such as from the Third World Academy of Sciences
Third World Academy of Sciences
TWAS, until 2004 named Third World Academy of Sciences and now TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world, is a merit-based science academy uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development in...
(1990 and 1992), the Mexican Prize of Science and Technology (199), the Rheimboldt-Hauptmann Prize of the University of São Paulo (2001) and the Péter Murányi Prize (2002). He is in the editorial board of several international journals, is foreign member to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
.
Dr. Ferreira is also a noted scientific leader in Brazil. He helped to found and is one of the editors-in-chief of the most influential international biomedical scientific journal, Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research
Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research
The Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research is a leading international scientific periodical in the fields of biology and medicine, edited and published monthly by the Associação Brasileira de Divulgação Científica , a federation of Brazilian scientific societies comprising:*Sociedade...
, is a member of the Brazilian National Academy of Sciences and of the Brazilian Council of Science and Technology. He is founder and past president of the Brazilian Society for Pharmacology and Therapeutics and of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC).
Source
- Adapted from Sérgio Henrique Ferreira Biography. Brazilian Academy of Sciences.