Indiana University School of Medicine researchers and their collaborators have found that augmenting a specific gene can improve pulmonary arterial hypertension symptoms in rats and mice, identifying a potential drug target for treating the deadly disease in humans. Pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH, is a rare and life-threatening condition characterized by high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs. Blood vessels in the lungs of patients with PAH exhibit excess inflammation, which is thought to contribute to disease development.