Could the Blood Pressure Drug Telmisartan One Day Be Used to Prevent Stroke?
Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College detailed their findings in a recent press release. The drug in question, telmisartan, is currently used to treat high blood pressure.
It is already known that there is a link between high blood pressure and the risk of having a stroke. Therefore, researchers wanted to see whether or not high blood pressure medications used in combination with each other provided better results at lowering blood pressure. Just by lowering the blood pressure, the risk of stroke is also lower.
Testing their theory on rats, researchers fed rats a diet that was bound to induce strokes. They discovered that even though these rats were being fed a special diet designed to induce strokes, these rats were totally protected from having strokes while they were taking telmisartan, whether they took this drug alone, or in combination with another high blood pressure medicine named ramipril.
"A main finding was that combination therapy did reduce blood pressure the best of any treatment, and it also was best at cutting damage to the rats' hearts and kidneys," said Dr. Daniel F. Catanzaro, professor of physiology and biophysics and professor of physiology in cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Catanzaro was also the lead researchers for this study.
In the release, Catanzaro continued: "But what was really surprising to us was that any regimen involving telmisartan at doses that would normally be given to humans completely prevented stroke in this model. Most studies with other drugs have used much higher doses and have found only partial protection."
This is not the first time that a drug designed for treating high blood pressure was found to have other benefits. Other research has indicated that high blood pressure medicines may have application in treating or preventing Alzheimers. You can read more about that study by clicking HERE.
Other researchers involved in this study include Dr. Ada R. Ene, Dr. Fangmin Yu, and Dr. Ying Zhou. All of the resarchers were from Weill Cornell Medical College which is located in New York City.
This study was funded in part by the German maker of telmisartan, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Company. It has been published in the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension.
Source:
http://news.med.cornell.edu/wcmc/wcmc_2007/12_12_07.shtml
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