Researchers claim to have found a solution to previously untreatable high blood pressure.
Scientists from Queen Mary University of London and US pharmaceutical company CinCor investigated whether patients would benefit from taking a drug called Baxdrostat.
Those who took the new drug during clinical trials were found to have significantly lower blood pressure after other traditional drugs failed.
Baxdrostat works by stopping the body from making aldosterone, a hormone that helps regulate salt levels in the body.
“The results from this first-in-class drug are exciting, although more testing is needed before we can compare with any existing drug,” said co-senior author Professor Maurice Brown, Professor of Endocrine Hypertension at Queen Mary University. or London.
“But Baxdrostat may offer hope to many people who do not respond to conventional hypertension treatments.
“The effectiveness of older drugs can vary widely in individual patients, and a hallmark of this new class is that it can be predicted to work well in patients whose aldosterone hormones made them resistant to older treatments.”
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About 248 people with “refractory” high blood pressure received a dummy drug (also called a placebo) or different doses of the drug for 12 weeks.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that people who received the highest dose saw their blood pressure drop by an average of 20 percent.
The strongest doses were associated with the greatest reductions, but those taking the smaller doses also dropped blood pressure.