Could We See a Vaccine As A Treatment For High Blood Pressure?

For a lot of individuals who suffer from high blood pressure the long-term solution is daily pills and repeated monitoring from your doctor with alterations to your dosage or changes in your tablets as needed. So how much better would life be if you were able to simply be vaccinated against high blood pressure and forget about the nuisance of your daily tablets?

Close to 1 in 3 Americans are presently suffering from high blood pressure but, as a result of the complicated mixture of drugs often needed for treatment, only about one third of those individuals in fact have got their blood pressure under control. But, this could be set to change.

In a trial which was conducted earlier this year (2007) a total of 72 patients (65 men and 7 women with an average age of 51 years 6 months) who were suffering from mild or moderate high blood pressure were given a low dose (100 micrograms) vaccine, a high dose (300 micrograms) vaccine or a placebo. This process was then repeated for weeks later and at the end of twelve weeks.

Fourteen days after the last injection it was found that the high dose vaccine patients showed a drop of more than 5 mm Hg in their higher systolic blood pressure and almost 3 mm Hg in their lower diastolic blood pressure reading.

Perhaps more notable, it was also discovered that the normal, and occasionally dangerous, peek in blood pressure which occurs in the morning between 5 am and 8 am was also lowered significantly by 25 mm Hg systolic and 13 mm Hg diastolic. The trial patients all tolerated the vaccine well and no safety issues arose during the course of the trial.

Okay, but just how does this vaccine work?

Presently high blood pressure is treated using a number of drugs which are designed to act on the body in different ways. Two of the classes of drugs commonly used are angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (such as Lotensin, Monopril, Prinivil, Accupril, Aceon, Vasotec, Altace, Univasc, Capoten and Zestril) and angiotensin-2 (AT-2) receptor blockers (such as Atacand, Avapro, Micardis and Teveten). In both cases these drugs work by blocking the action of a hormone which causes the blood vessels to constrict and thus to raise the pressure within the blood vessels.

The vaccine used in the trial, which is called CYT006-ANgQb, is designed to work in precisely the same manner as these two existing drugs and so could certainly provide an alternative for those patients whose blood pressure is now treated with AT-2 receptor blockers or ACE inhibitors.

But what about those patients whose high blood pressure is being treated using the alternatives of beta blockers (such as Sectral, Lopressor, Betapace, Toprol XL, Kerlone, Corgard, Cartol, Ziac and Zebeta) or calcium channel blockers (such as Norvasc, Tiazac, Sular, Isoptin, Nimotop, Plendil, Adalat, Lotrel, Calan, Cardizem and Verelan)? Well, it is very early days yet and additional trials will be needed before we see a vaccine in everyday use for the control of high blood pressure. If the scientists are correct however it seems likely that this vaccine will be effective for the majority of sufferers, whatever the treatment currently being given.

Naturally time will tell, but this is undoubtedly an extremely encouraging development.

TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information on a wide range of topics including finding a blood pressure monitor and the causes of high blood pressure