Cancer drugs could combat high blood pressure, leading to an alternative treatment for the condition that affects millions, and causes heart attacks and strokes.
The find has been hailed as a ‘real advance’ as current hypertension medications frequently cause intolerable side effects including anemia, constipation and dizziness.
Certain cancer drugs work by cutting off tumors’ blood supply, which results in reduced blood pressure and therefore could offer a potential treatment for hypertension.
Lead author Dr Anton Wellstein from Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington, said: ‘It’s rare that a single class of drugs can be used for such different conditions, but that is what our study strongly suggests.
‘The finding could offer a real advance in hypertension treatment because although a number of high blood pressure drugs are now available, they work by different mechanisms that are not suited for all patients.’
Cancer drugs could combat hypertension, leading to a therapy that may prevent stroke
Substances involved in cancer growth influence blood pressure
The researchers found a certain protein, known as FGFBP1, regulates the activity of substances that promote cell growth, including in cancers.
Certain people have a mutation in the gene that produces this protein, which causes it to be present in excessive amounts.
Such individuals often have high blood pressure.
The researchers over expressed the gene for FGFBP1 in mice, which caused their blood pressure to skyrocket.
Professor Wellstein said: ‘It actually went up from a normal blood pressure to pretty bad hypertension. It was amazing.’
This is thought to have occurred as the gene makes the animals’ blood vessels more responsive to a hormone, known as angiotensin II, which causes them to constrict, leading to hypertension.
The findings were published in the journal Hypertension.
‘A new mechanism of blood pressure control’
Professor Wellstein added: ‘FGF can control how sensitive the blood pressure regulation by angiotensin II is.
‘That tells us that if a person has hypertension, it is possible to target FGF signaling because it contributes to maintenance of high blood pressure by altering sensitivity to a major vasoconstrictive hormone, angiotensin II.
‘Of course, we can’t say that this tactic will work in humans with hypertension, but it will be straightforward to test this rather surprising possibility to target a new mechanism of blood pressure control.’
It is unclear what the potential side effects could be of giving cancer drugs to hypertension patients.