For a lot of individuals who are suffering from high blood pressure the long-term solution is daily pills and frequent monitoring from your physician with adjustments to your dose or changes to your pills as necessary. So just how much better would it be if you were able to simply be vaccinated against high blood pressure and forget about the nuisance of your daily pills?
Around 1 in 3 Americans are presently suffering from high blood pressure but, as a result of the complex mixture of pills frequently necessary for treatment, only some one third of those individuals in fact have got their blood pressure under control. However, this might be about to change shortly.
In a trial which was conducted earlier this year (2007) 72 people (65 men and 7 women with an average age of just over 51) who were suffering from either mild or moderate hypertension were given a low dose (100 micrograms) vaccine, a high dose (300 micrograms) vaccine or a placebo. This injection was repeated a month later and at the end of three months.
Two weeks after the final injection it was found that the people given the high dose vaccine were showing a fall of more than 5 mm Hg in their systolic blood pressure and about 3 mm Hg in their lower diastolic blood pressure.
Perhaps more significant, it was also discovered that the normal, and possibly dangerous, peek in pressure which happens in the morning between 5 am and 8 am was also lowered significantly by 25 mm Hg systolic and 13 mm Hg diastolic.
The patients in the trial all tolerated the vaccine well and no safety issues arose during the trial.
So just how does the vaccine work?
Presently high blood pressure is controlled using a number of drugs which are designed to act in different ways. Two of the types of drugs commonly used are angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (such as Lotensin, Mavik, Monopril, Univasc, Capoten, Vasotec, Altace, Accupril, Prinivil and Zestril) and angiotensin-2 (AT-2) receptor blockers (such as Atacand, Micardis, Cozaar, Avapro and Teveten). In both cases these drugs work by blocking the action of a hormone which causes the blood vessels to narrow and as a result to increase the pressure within the blood vessels.
The trial vaccine, which is called CYT006-ANgQb, is designed to work in precisely the same manner as these two existing drugs and so should clearly be an alternative for those people whose blood pressure is now controlled using AT-2 receptor blockers or ACE inhibitors.
So what about those people whose high pressure is being controlled using the alternatives of beta blockers (such as Sectral, Tenormin, Corgard, Ziac, Betapace, Lopressor, Inderal, Toprol XL, Blocadren, Cartol and Zebeta) or calcium channel blockers (such as Norvasc, Isoptin, Lotrel, Cardizem, Vascor, Sular, Tiazac, Procardia, Nimotop, Calan and Verelan)?
Naturally, it is very early days yet and further trials will be necessary before we see a vaccine in widespread use for the treatment of high blood pressure. However, if the scientists are correct, it is likely that this vaccine will be effective for the majority of sufferers, whatever the treatment presently being given.
Naturally time will tell, however this is clearly an extremely encouraging development.

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