High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects more than 116 million adults in the United States.
It’s a serious health issue because it raises the risk of heart disease and stroke—two of the top causes of death in the country. In 2020, high blood pressure was linked to over 670,000 deaths.
Even though it’s common, many people still have trouble keeping their blood pressure under control. But now, scientists at the University of Virginia have made a discovery that might lead to better and safer treatments in the future.
The researchers studied how blood pressure is controlled inside the body. A key part of this process involves smooth muscle cells, which are found in the walls of our blood vessels.
These cells use calcium to help them tighten or relax. When they tighten, the blood vessels get smaller and blood pressure goes up. When they relax, the blood vessels get wider and blood pressure goes down.
Many current medicines for high blood pressure are called calcium channel blockers. These drugs lower the amount of calcium that gets into smooth muscle cells, which helps relax the blood vessels.
But calcium is also important for other things in the body, like helping muscles move and nerves work. So, blocking too much calcium can cause unwanted side effects.
The new study found something very interesting. Inside the smooth muscle cells, there are two tiny parts called “nanodomains.” These act like mini control centers. They help control how calcium flows inside the cell, deciding when the blood vessels should tighten or relax.
In healthy people, these nanodomains keep things balanced. But in people with high blood pressure, the balance is lost. The signals that make blood vessels tighten get stronger, and the signals that help them relax get weaker. This causes the blood vessels to stay narrow, which keeps blood pressure high.
This discovery is important because it gives scientists a better idea of how high blood pressure starts.
It also shows a new way to treat it. Instead of blocking calcium everywhere in the body, future treatments could target just the nanodomains. This would help blood vessels relax without affecting other parts of the body that need calcium.
Of course, more research is needed to fully understand how to do this. But the study gives scientists a clear new path to explore. If new medicines can be made to work only on the nanodomains, they could treat high blood pressure more safely and effectively.
This could help millions of people who have high blood pressure, lowering their risk of heart disease, stroke, and other serious health problems. For now, this research is an exciting step forward in finding better ways to treat one of the world’s most common and dangerous conditions.
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