A new therapeutic avenue is opening up to treat resistant arterial hypertension. By targeting the mechanisms of the disease in the brain, new treatments should make it possible to significantly lower blood pressure.
High blood pressure is difficult to treat. First of all, it should be remembered that one in two French people does not have their blood pressure checked, as shown by an Ipsos survey carried out in May 2019 for the biotech Quantum Genomics.
And above all, even among the patients treated, only 40% are at the objectives defined by the consensus, namely 14/9. This poses the problem of the effectiveness of the treatments available for the management of this disease which, because of its high frequency, is the risk factor responsible for the greatest number of deaths and disabilities in the world.
An original molecule acting on the brain
A new therapeutic route should rapidly appear with the development of an original molecule that no longer acts on peripheral organs like most existing anti-hypertensives, but directly on the brain by inhibiting the enzyme aminopeptidase-A. This makes it possible to block, at the cerebral level, the transformation of angiotensin II into angiotensin III, which leads to a reduction in the release of vasopressin and sympathetic activity by improving the baroreflex response.
Over 20 years of research
It is more than 20 years of research work carried out by the University of Paris-Descartes and the INSESRM/CNRS laboratory on which the industry relies to develop these new drugs.
“Current treatments, frequently used in dual therapies or in triple therapies, often have bothersome side effects and at least 30% of hypertensive patients are poorly controlled by the resistant route; finding a treatment for these patients in treatment failure is therefore a real public health issue, however, arterial hypertension is today one of the poor relations of research”, underlines Jean-Philippe Milon, general manager of a biotechnology company which is working on the development of this new class of anti-inflammatory agents. hypertension. These innovative treatments should be accessible from the year 2023.
Interview with Fabrice Balavoine, R&D director of a biotech working on innovation in the treatment of hypertension
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