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Brain Protein Blamed for Hypertension

Posted on: Monday, 16 April 2007, 18:00 CDT

British medical scientists have determined one cause of high blood pressure might involve a brain protein.

The controversial idea was put forward by Hidefumi Waki at the University of Bristol. Waki, working in a research group led by Professor Julian Paton, has found a novel role for the protein, JAM-1 (junctional adhesion molecule-1), which is located in the walls of blood vessels in the brain.

JAM-1 traps white blood cells called leukocytes which, once trapped, can cause inflammation and may obstruct blood flow, resulting in poor oxygen supply to the brain. That has led to the idea that high blood pressure might be an inflammatory vascular disease of the brain.

We are looking at the possibility of treating those patients that fail to respond to conventional therapy for hypertension with drugs that reduce blood vessel inflammation and increase blood flow within the brain, said Paton. The future challenge will be to understand the type of inflammation within the vessels in the brain, so that we know what drug to use, and how to target them. JAM-1 could provide us with new clues as to how to deal with this disease.

The research is published in the journal Hypertension.

Source: United Press International

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