Therapeutic benefits of increasing natriuretic peptide levels

Natriuretic peptides play an important role in water and salt homeostasis a nd in the regulation of the cardiovascular system. In recent years, exogeno us administration of natriuretic peptides has primarily been used to improv e our understanding of the role of natriuretic peptides. Also, it became ev ident that natriuretic peptides may be used therapeutically. Because of the ir peptide character, they cannot be administered orally and, therefore, ma y be used for short-term intravenous therapy only. In recent years, inhibit ors of neutral endopeptidase, which degrades natriuretic peptides to inacti ve metabolites, have been investigated. This review focuses on the potentia l benefits of increasing natriuretic peptide levels, either through exogeno us administration or inhibiting the degradation of endogenous natriuretic p eptides. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BY All rights reserved.