László Szekeres (July 4, 1921 – January 9, 2012) was a Hungarian professor at the Institute of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Medical Faculty of the University of Szeged, Hungary. His research contributed to the development of cardiac drugs.
He graduated from high school in Győr and in 1949 he graduated at the Medical School of the University of Pécs. He worked as intern in the Institute of Pharmacology at the same university. His original plan was to become a clinical physician, but after graduation he decided to stay in the Institute of Pharmacology. In 1959 and 1960 he did a few months postgraduate work in Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the Pharmacological Institutes of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In 1960-61 he completed a Riker fellowship at the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Oxford. In 1963 he spent two months in the "Istituto Superiore di Sanitá" in Rome to study methods concerning cerebral circulation with the Nobel-prize laureate Professor Bovet. In 1982 he studied at the National Institute of Health and at the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, DC.
He researched cardiac metabolic changes due to hypoxia, ischaemia, hypothermia and cardiovascular drugs. He became interested in experimental cardiac arrhythmia and antiarrhythmic drugs, area rather unexplored at that time. Worked with E. M. Vaughan Williams comparing the electrophysiological actions of different antiarrhythmic drugs. The result of their cooperation formed the basis of 'Vaughan Williams Classification' of antiarrhythmic drugs. Returning home he developed new models for the assessment of antiarrhythmic action, which were soon widely applied. He also studied the electrophysiologic changes due to drugs, ischemia or heart failure. The results and data on experimental cardiac arrhythmias and antiarrhythmic drugs were summarized with his co-authorship in the first comprehensive monograph written on this topic.
Search for methods to prevent sudden cardiac death due to acute myocardial infarction. First a new, (widely appreciated) model of experimental angina pectoris was developed. With the help of this method a number of antianginal and other cardiac drugs as well as their effect on hemodynamic and cardiac metabolic changes were studied. In addition it was for the first time shown that reorganization of the phospholipid structure of the myocardial membrane by linoleic acid-rich diet offers a marked protection against life-threatening arrhythmias due to coronary artery occlusion in rats. All these results and literature on epidemiology and pathophysiology of sudden cardiac death as well as on possible therapeutic measures were summarized in a monograph.
He studied the effects of prostacyclin and its stable analogue: 7-oxo-prostacyclin in the experimental dog model of angina pectoris. A detailed analysis of the phenomenon of delayed anti-anginal action revealed that PgI2-pretreatment protected against consequences of ischaemia, such as early morphological changes, early and late postocclusion and reperfusion arrhythmias due to coronary artery occlusion or ouabain intoxication.
This endogenous 'self-defense' due to delayed adaptation to stress is promising also as a future trend in therapy since it works in experimental atherosclerosis too. Exploratory investigations suggest that the phenomenon is not confined to the heart only, vessels and possibly other organs could be also involved.
He was the founder of the "Szeged school of cardiovascular pharmacology" of international reputation, a number of his former pupils and co-workers became professors and leading scientists, and among them six became chairmen of Departments of Pharmacology in Hungary.
His major scientific interests and contributions included the first comprehensive analysis of the mode of action of antiarrhythmic drugs, the elucidation of the mechanism of cardiac arrhythmias, and that of the antiarrhythmic and anti-anginal drugs. He also developed several "in vivo" models of experimental arrhythmias as well as of that of angina pectoris for testing antiarrhythmic and anti-anginal drugs. Professor Szekeres also contributed to the discovery of drug induced delayed cardiac adaptation to stress. He was interested in the pathomechanism and pharmacological prevention of cardiac arrhythmias and the consequences of myocardial ischaemia.
He married Lenke Rudas, former associate professor in the Department of Dentistry of the University of Pécs and later of the University of Szeged (Died 1990). They had two daughters. In 1993 he married Ibolya Pamuk.
J. Cardiovascular Pharmacology, since foundation (1974–1988)
European J. Pharmacology, since foundation (1966–1975)
Progress in Pharmacology, since foundation (1974–1988)
Basic Research in Cardiology, since foundation (from Zeitschrift für Kreislaufforschung) (1978–1994)
Cardioscience, since foundation (1989–1996)
Rhythmology, since foundation (1987–1996)
Canadian J. Cardiology (1987–1998)
British J. Pharmacology,(Corresponding editor, 1981–1998)
Archives Internationales de Pharmacodynamie et de Thérapie, since 1975.