High blood pressure is a very common health problem that affects millions of people around the world. The usual way to treat it is by taking medicine every day. But this method doesn’t work well for everyone.
Many people forget to take their pills, and this puts them at higher risk for serious health problems like stroke, heart attack, or even early death.
That’s why scientists are searching for a better, easier way to control high blood pressure. Now, they may have found one. A new drug called zilebesiran could change the way we treat this condition.
Researchers from places like the University of Edinburgh have been studying zilebesiran, and the early results are exciting. Unlike traditional pills, zilebesiran is given as a single injection. Just one shot can help lower blood pressure for up to six months.
In trials done in the UK, people who got the drug saw a big drop in their systolic blood pressure. This is the top number you see in a blood pressure reading and it shows how hard your heart pumps. People who got 200 milligrams or more had their pressure drop by over 10 mmHg.
Those who got the highest dose, 800 milligrams, saw a drop of over 20 mmHg. These numbers are big enough to move many people from a dangerous level to a much healthier one, which could help prevent heart problems.
So how does zilebesiran work? It targets a hormone called angiotensin. This hormone raises blood pressure by making blood vessels tighter. The drug stops the body from making a protein called angiotensinogen, which is needed to create the hormone.
It uses special gene-silencing technology to turn off the gene that makes this protein. This means there is less of the hormone in the body, and blood pressure stays lower.
The study included 107 people with high blood pressure. Eighty of them got a single shot of zilebesiran, and the rest got a placebo, which is a fake treatment. The people who got the real drug had much better results. Their blood pressure stayed lower for months, showing that zilebesiran could be a long-lasting and simple treatment.
Professor David Webb from the University of Edinburgh helped lead the study. He said, “This is a potentially big step forward for treating high blood pressure.” He also said that this could make it much easier for people to stick to their treatment plans. The next step is to make sure the drug is safe for everyone and works well over a longer period.
If future studies confirm that zilebesiran is safe and effective, it could become a new way to treat high blood pressure. People wouldn’t need to remember daily pills, which could save lives and improve health.
While waiting for new treatments, it’s still important to manage blood pressure with small lifestyle changes like healthy eating and exercise. But zilebesiran gives us hope that treating this common condition might soon become much simpler.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more health information, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing vitamin D could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
The results of this research were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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