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Twenty-eight genes responsible for the development of arterial hypertension have been discovered
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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An international team of more than 300 researchers has announced the completion of a project to find the genetic causes of high blood pressure. Scientists have identified 28 genes whose mutations lead to disturbances in its regulation.
Approximately one billion people suffer from high blood pressure. Considering that the slightest changes in its value increase the risk of cardiovascular disorders and can lead to a heart attack, high blood pressure should be called the number one disease in the modern world.
It is known that blood pressure depends on many factors - both genetic and lifestyle-related. But if everything is more or less clear with the latter, then almost nothing is known for sure about the genetic causes of abnormal pressure: only guesses and assumptions.
The search for the corresponding genes involved 351 researchers from 234 scientific centers around the world. Having analyzed about 2.5 million DNA samples from more than 69,000 Europeans, the scientists discovered several chromosomal regions whose genes could potentially influence blood pressure. In the second stage of the search, the DNA of more than 130,000 people was analyzed; as a result, 28 genes associated with the regulation of systolic and diastolic blood pressure were identified. To confirm that these same genes are also effective among other races and peoples, the genomes of 74,000 residents of South and East Asia and Africa were analyzed.
12 of these genes had previously been suspected of involvement in cardiovascular abnormalities; 16 of the described genes had not yet come to the attention of researchers. The results of the work were published in two articles - in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics.
Mutations in some of the identified genes lead directly to coronary artery disease, structural changes in the heart muscle, and other unpleasant things. At the same time, some of these genes may reveal to scientists another, previously unknown way of regulating blood pressure. Three of the twenty-eight genes described are part of the system that controls the turnover of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). cGMP is involved in the relaxation of the muscular wall of blood vessels and sodium metabolism in the kidneys. Blood pressure management directly depends on both, meaning that doctors have a new opportunity to normalize blood pressure.
It is to be hoped that practical consequences of this colossal work will not be slow in appearing: knowing the patient’s genetic map, it is much easier to make predictions concerning his cardiovascular system and individualize treatment plans.
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