High blood pressure is a common health problem for millions of people. Right now, the most common treatment is taking daily medication.
But many people forget to take their pills regularly. In fact, more than half of people with high blood pressure struggle with this.
That’s a serious problem because when blood pressure isn’t controlled, it raises the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and even early death.
That’s why researchers are looking for easier ways to manage high blood pressure. A new drug called zilebesiran might be the answer.
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh and other research teams have been testing this medicine, and the results are exciting. Zilebesiran is given as a shot, and just one dose could keep blood pressure down for up to six months.
In UK trials, patients who received the drug saw a big drop in their systolic blood pressure—the number that measures how hard the heart pumps blood. A 200mg dose lowered the number by more than 10 mmHg, and an 800mg dose lowered it by more than 20 mmHg. These changes can bring a person’s blood pressure into a much healthier range.
So how does this shot work? Zilebesiran was developed by a U.S. company called Alnylam. It works by stopping the body from making a hormone called angiotensin, which normally makes blood vessels tighten and raises blood pressure.
Zilebesiran goes straight to the liver, where it blocks the gene that starts this whole process. By turning off that gene, the drug keeps the hormone from being made in the first place.
The recent study included 107 people with high blood pressure. Out of those, 80 received the new drug, while the rest got a placebo—a fake treatment. Now, the research team wants to do more studies to make sure the drug is safe and to see how well it works over a longer period of time.
Professor David Webb from the University of Edinburgh called this discovery a big step forward. He explained that there hasn’t been a new kind of blood pressure medicine in 17 years.
He believes this new method could make it much easier for people to stick to their treatment and keep their blood pressure under control. The next step is to focus on safety testing and effectiveness before it becomes available to everyone.
If future studies go well, zilebesiran could be a simple and powerful way to treat high blood pressure—just one shot every few months instead of daily pills. That could make a huge difference in helping people stay healthy.
If you’re interested in learning more about managing blood pressure, you can also explore studies on small habits that help, unusual causes of high blood pressure, and how certain foods—like potatoes—can affect it.
The study results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies that widely used blood pressure drug may increase eye disease risk and common blood pressure drugs linked to cognitive decline.
For more about blood pressure, please read studies about why checking blood pressure while lying down is very important and lowering top blood pressure number to less than 120 mm Hg effectively prevents heart disease.
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