For a lot of individuals suffering from high blood pressure the only long-term answer is daily pills and frequent monitoring from your doctor with adjustments to your dosage or changes in your tablets as necessary. So just how much better would it be if you could simply have a vaccination for high blood pressure and dispense with your daily tablets?
Almost one in three Americans are presently suffering from high blood pressure but, because of the complex mixture of medication frequently necessary for treatment, only about one third of those individuals in fact have got their blood pressure under control. But, this might be about to change shortly.
In a trial which was conducted earlier this year (2007) a total of 72 people (65 men and 7 women with an average age of just over 51) suffering from either mild or moderate high blood pressure were injected with a low dose (100 micrograms) vaccine, a high dose (300 micrograms) vaccine or a placebo. This process was repeated for weeks later and at the end of twelve weeks.
Two weeks after the final injection it was noted that the high dose vaccine patients were showing a drop of more than 5 mm Hg in their systolic blood pressure and close to 3 mm Hg in their lower diastolic blood pressure reading.
More significant, it was also found that the characteristic, and often dangerous, spike in pressure which happens in the morning between 5 am and 8 am was also lowered markedly by 25 mm Hg systolic and 13 mm Hg diastolic.
The trial patients all tolerated the vaccine without problem and there were no safety issues during the trial.
Okay, but just how does this vaccine work?
At the moment high blood pressure is treated with a number of drugs which are designed to act on the body in different ways. Two of the classes of drugs in common use are angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (such as Lotensin, Monopril, Prinivil, Vasotec, Altace, Univasc, Accupril, Aceon and Zestril) and angiotensin-2 (AT-2) receptor blockers (such as Atacand, Micardis, Avapro and Teveten). All of these drugs work by blocking the action of a molecule which causes the blood vessels to narrow and therefore to increase the pressure within the blood vessels.
The vaccine used in the trial, which is known as CYT006-ANgQb, is designed to work in precisely the same way as these two currently used drugs and so should certainly be an alternative for those patients whose high blood pressure is now treated with ACE inhibitors or AT-2 receptor blockers.
But what about those patients whose high pressure is currently being treated with the alternatives of beta blockers (such as Sectral, Corgard, Lopressor, Tenormin, Inderal, Kerlone, Blocadren, Toprol XL, Betapace, Ziac and Zebeta) or calcium channel blockers (such as Norvasc, Cardizem, Tiazac, Calan, Procardia, Vascor, Adalat, Nimotop and Verelan)?
Naturally, it is early days yet and further trials will be needed before we see a vaccine in everyday use to control high blood pressure. However, if the scientists are right, it is likely that this vaccine is going to be effective for the majority of sufferers, whatever the treatment presently being given.
Only time will tell, but this is obviously a very encouraging development.
TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on a wide range of topics including blood pressure monitor ratings and the causes of high blood pressure
