Leandro Bueno Bergantin

Leandro Bueno Bergantin is a PhD from the Universidade Federal de São Paulo and the primary author of a paper on the discovery of the "calcium paradox" in sympathetic transmission.Dr. Bergantin received his academic education at EPM-UNIFESP (Brazil) and UAM (Spain): degree in biomedicine (2008), MSc (2010) and PhD (2014). His research involves cell signaling mediated by Ca2+ and cAMP, skeletal and smooth muscles, peripheral and central nervous systems. His research work solved the enigma of the paradoxical effects produced by L-type Ca2+ channel blockers (TOP 25 Hottest Articles - Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology - Cell Calcium - TOP 1 July to September 2013/ TOP 5 October to December 2013/ TOP 1 January to December 2013 full year/TOP 6 January to March 2014). Since 1975, several clinical and experimental studies have reported that acute and chronic administration of L-type voltage-activated Ca2+ channels (VACCs) blockers, such as nifedipine, produces reduction in arterial pressure associated with an increase of sympathetic activity. Despite this sympathetic hyperactivity has been initially attributed to adjust reflex of arterial pressure, the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in this apparent sympathomimetic effect of the L-type VACCs blockers remained unclear for decades. In 2013, Dr. Bergantin and collaborators discovered that this paradoxical increase in sympathetic activity produced by L-type VACCs blockers is due to interaction of the Ca2+/cAMP signaling pathways. Then, the pharmacological manipulation of the Ca2+/cAMP interaction produced by combination of the L-type VACCs blockers used in the antihypertensive therapy, and cAMP accumulating compounds used in the antidepressive therapy, could represent a potential cardiovascular risk for hypertensive patients due to increase in sympathetic activity. In contrast, this pharmacological manipulation could be a new therapeutic strategy for increasing neurotransmission in psychiatric disorders, and producing neuroprotection in the neurodegenerative diseases. The original article was listed as a "hot article" (TOP 1 July to September 2013/TOP 5 October to December 2013/TOP 1 January to December 2013 full year) in ScienceDirect.