For the majority of people who suffer from high blood pressure the long-term solution is daily pills and repeated monitoring from your physician with adjustments to your dosage or changes in your tablets as needed. So just how much better would life be if you could simply have a vaccination for high blood pressure and forget about the nuisance of your daily tablets? Nearly 1 in 3 Americans are presently suffering from high blood pressure but, because of the complex mix of drugs often needed for treatment, only about one third of those people actually have got their blood pressure problem under control. Nevertheless, this could be about to change. In a trial conducted earlier this year (2007) 72 people (65 men and 7 women with an average age of just over 51) suffering from mild or moderate hypertension were given a low dose (100 micrograms) vaccine, a high dose (300 micrograms) vaccine or a placebo. This injection was then repeated a month later and at the end of twelve weeks. Two weeks after the final injection it was noted that the individuals given the high dose vaccine were showing a fall of more than 5 mm Hg in their higher systolic blood pressure and nearly 3 mm Hg in their lower diastolic blood pressure reading. Possible more significant, it was also discovered that the usual, and potentially dangerous, spike in blood pressure that occurs in the early morning between 5 am and 8 am was also reduced considerably by 25 mm Hg systolic and 13 mm Hg diastolic. The people in the trial all tolerated the vaccine without difficulty and there were no safety issues during the trial. Okay, but precisely how does the vaccine work? Presently blood pressure is controlled using a number of drugs that are designed to act in different ways. Two of the types of drugs often used are angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (such as Lotensin, Altace, Vasotec, Mavik, Univasc, Monopril, Capoten, Aceon, Accupril and Zestril) and angiotensin-2 (AT-2) receptor blockers (such as Atacand, Avapro, Micardis and Teveten). All of these drugs work by blocking the action of a hormone that causes the blood vessels to tighten and therefore to increase the pressure within the blood vessels. The trial vaccine, which is called CYT006-ANgQb, works in exactly the same way as these two existing drugs and so should clearly be an alternative for those individuals whose condition is now controlled with AT-2 receptor blockers or ACE inhibitors. But what about those individuals whose blood pressure is currently being controlled using the alternatives of beta blockers (such as Sectral, Inderal, Blocadren, Cartol, Ziac, Tenormin, Kerlone, Toprol XL and Zebeta) or calcium channel blockers (such as Norvasc, Plendil, Lotrel, Adalat, Isoptin, Calan, Vascor, Procardia, Nimotop, Tiazac and Verelan)? Of course, it is early days yet and further trials will be needed before we see a vaccine in widespread use for the treatment of high blood pressure. If the scientists are right however it seems likely that this vaccine will be effective for a lot of sufferers, whatever the treatment currently being given. Only time will tell, but this is without doubt an extremely encouraging development.
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