Scientists are investigating whether treatment for high blood pressure can be improved by taking a person's ethnic heritage into account.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is common in the general population. A healthy lifestyle alone is not enough to control blood pressure, and drug treatment is required.
There are a wide variety of drugs available and although these are effective and safe, it is often necessary to try different types of drugs and often to use a combination of two or more drugs.
Delay in choosing the right kind of tablet or combination of tablets through 'trial and error' is a major problem and, in a large proportion of people with hypertension, blood pressure is not adequately controlled. Relatively little is known about why some people respond better to one kind of tablet or combination of tablets than others.
It is know that response to treatment differs in different ethnic groups in the UK and may differ between populations in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Now scientists at the University of Glasgow are working, with a consortium led by King's College London, to see if genetic markers of ancestry, combined with a detailed measure of chemical 'metabolites' circulating in the blood that characterise the biochemical processes in each person can predict the best type of drug that person.
This is the goal of the £3.4m AIM HY study, funded by the Medical Research Council and the British Heart Foundation.
Professor Sandosh Padmanabhan, the lead investigator at Glasgow, said: "High blood pressure is currently treated using a range of generic, low cost drugs which are not always effective.
"We plan to use 21st century high-throughput genomics and metabolomics to try and explain the mechanism for the known differences in drug response observed in different ethnic groups and see if we can use this knowledge to improve hypertension treatment.
"This project seeks evidence for selecting the drug treatments in an ethnically-diverse population like the UK. This may involve using non-standard combinations of existing drugs and/or new drugs. If a combination of drugs is required we can use a new technology to put these into a single tablet.
"The ultimate aim is to deliver personalised treatment for high blood pressure, based on a single blood test that captures the genetic and other biological factors that determine how an individual will respond.
"This should reduce the number of consultations, the time required to achieve optimal blood pressure control and contribute to better hypertension control in the UK."
High blood pressure is extremely common within the general population in the UK and worldwide and is a major cause of heart disease, kidney disease and stroke.
One in three of the UK population will require treatment for hypertension at some point in their lives. It's the biggest contributor to the global burden of disease, a burden that is particularly great in ethnic minorities in the UK and in lower and middle income countries. It is also the commonest reason for people to be prescribed long-term medication by their GP.
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Scientists are investigating whether treatment for high blood pressure can be improved by taking a person's ethnic heritage into account.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is common in the general population. A healthy lifestyle alone is not enough to control blood pressure, and drug treatment is required.
There are a wide variety of drugs available and although these are effective and safe, it is often necessary to try different types of drugs and often to use a combination of two or more drugs.
Delay in choosing the right kind of tablet or combination of tablets through 'trial and error' is a major problem and, in a large proportion of people with hypertension, blood pressure is not adequately controlled. Relatively little is known about why some people respond better to one kind of tablet or combination of tablets than others.
It is know that response to treatment differs in different ethnic groups in the UK and may differ between populations in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Now scientists at the University of Glasgow are working, with a consortium led by King's College London, to see if genetic markers of ancestry, combined with a detailed measure of chemical 'metabolites' circulating in the blood that characterise the biochemical processes in each person can predict the best type of drug that person.
This is the goal of the £3.4m AIM HY study, funded by the Medical Research Council and the British Heart Foundation.
Professor Sandosh Padmanabhan, the lead investigator at Glasgow, said: "High blood pressure is currently treated using a range of generic, low cost drugs which are not always effective.
"We plan to use 21st century high-throughput genomics and metabolomics to try and explain the mechanism for the known differences in drug response observed in different ethnic groups and see if we can use this knowledge to improve hypertension treatment.
"This project seeks evidence for selecting the drug treatments in an ethnically-diverse population like the UK. This may involve using non-standard combinations of existing drugs and/or new drugs. If a combination of drugs is required we can use a new technology to put these into a single tablet.
"The ultimate aim is to deliver personalised treatment for high blood pressure, based on a single blood test that captures the genetic and other biological factors that determine how an individual will respond.
"This should reduce the number of consultations, the time required to achieve optimal blood pressure control and contribute to better hypertension control in the UK."
High blood pressure is extremely common within the general population in the UK and worldwide and is a major cause of heart disease, kidney disease and stroke.
One in three of the UK population will require treatment for hypertension at some point in their lives. It's the biggest contributor to the global burden of disease, a burden that is particularly great in ethnic minorities in the UK and in lower and middle income countries. It is also the commonest reason for people to be prescribed long-term medication by their GP.
Explore further: An autoimmune response may contribute to hypertension
Medical Xpress on facebook
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Uncontrolled hypertension is common, but untreated, worldwide
Sep 03, 2013
A global study has found that many patients don't know they have hypertension and, even if they do, too few are receiving adequate drug therapy for their hypertension.
Medical practice on blood pressure challenged in study
Jan 12, 2011
New research shows that starting treatment of blood pressure with two medicines rather than the one produces better and faster results and fewer side effects. The findings could change clinical practice world-wide.
An autoimmune response may contribute to hypertension
Sep 17, 2014
High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, chronic heart failure, and kidney disease. Inflammation is thought to promote the development of high blood pressure, though it is not clear what triggers ...
Nearly half of US adults with high blood pressure have it under control
Oct 22, 2012
Nearly half of U.S. adults with high blood pressure had their blood pressure under control by the end of 2010—a significant increase from the start of the decade, researchers reported in the American Heart Association journal ...
Experts raise concern over unnecessary treatment of mild hypertension in low risk people
Sep 14, 2014
Lowering the drug threshold for high blood pressure has exposed millions of low-risk people around the world to drug treatment of uncertain benefit at huge cost to health systems, warn US experts in BMJ today.
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Revascularization cuts mortality, MACE in coronary CTO
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User comments
Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more
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© Medical Xpress 2011-2014, Science X network
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