Key blood pressure hormone to save thousands

LONDON - Scientists have pinpointed one of the root causes of high blood pressure that could save the lives of thousands of babies and adults.

The breakthrough, the result of three decades of painstaking research, could lead to blood pressure (BP) pills within just 10 years.

Scientists from Cambridge and Nottingham Universities in Britain already knew that hormones called angiotensins cause the blood vessels to narrow and blood pressure to rise, according to the journal Nature.

But angiotensins are usually hidden out of harm’s way deep inside a protein and no one knew what caused them to be released. The latest research fills in this vital first step, reports the Daily Mail.

Using powerful X-rays they showed that dangerous oxygen molecules trigger a shape in the protein, allowing the blood pressure-raising hormones to be released.

Researchers said the finding could lead to drugs - or even vitamins - that mop up the rogue oxygen being used to treat pre-eclampsia, a condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy.

Pre-eclampsia kills 50,000 otherwise healthy women and half a million babies around the world each year.

Robin Carrell of the University of Cambridge said: “The findings also provide insight and leads into understanding the causes of long-term changes in blood pressure - the common forms of hypertension.”

High BP afflicts 16 million British men and women. It doubles the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke and is blamed for more than 60,000 deaths a year in Britain alone.

Although it can be treated with pills, many patients stop taking them because of side-effects like fatigue and nausea or simply because they feel healthy.