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Vaccine lowers blood pressure for up to six months, ‘could replace daily tablets’

By Editorial board
02 June 2015   |   2:54 am
A vaccine that lowers blood pressure for up to six months at a time could spell an end to daily tablets, scientists have claimed. Researchers say a simple injection would be sufficient to control blood pressure for a prolonged period, meaning patients would no longer have to worry about taking their daily medication. High blood…
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A vaccine that lowers blood pressure for up to six months at a time could spell an end to daily tablets, scientists have claimed.

Researchers say a simple injection would be sufficient to control blood pressure for a prolonged period, meaning patients would no longer have to worry about taking their daily medication.

High blood pressure is known to significantly raise the risk of strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease.

Medication that reduces blood pressure is widely available – but doctors have complained for years that many of their patients forget to take their pills, or do not see the need.

Many people have to take two or more different medications to reduce their blood pressure to a safe level.

And because the condition has no symptoms until it triggers a heart or kidney problem, some patients do not bother taking their drugs.

The scale of the problem means that doctors have been trying for some years to develop a long-lasting treatment that does not rely on daily medication.

Now a team from Japan have made a breakthrough which they claim may pave the way for such a vaccine.

They found that injecting a DNA vaccine into rats reduced blood pressure for six months at a time, reducing damage to the heart and blood vessels as a result.

They say the results, published in the journal Hypertension, may eventually lead to a human treatment.

Study author, Dr. Hironori Nakagami, of Osaka University in Japan, told DailyMailOnline: “The potential of a vaccine for hypertension offers an innovative treatment that could be very effective for the control of non-compliance which is one of the major problems in the management of hypertensive patients.”

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