If you have high blood pressure or are at risk of developing it, lifestyle changes can help keep your numbers under control. If a trial of making lifestyle changes is not enough to control your blood pressure, you will likely receive a prescription for one or more of the medications in addition to maintaining your lifestyle measures. There are several classes of blood pressure medications that lower blood pressure in a different way. The blood pressure lowering effect may vary among individuals depending on age, sex, race, how high the blood pressure is and other health conditions.A two-drug combination generally is more effective than is a single drug to get your blood pressure under control. Sometimes a third medication, or more, is needed to achieve your blood pressure goal. A healthcare provider may try several medications or doses before finding what works best for you. Also, it’s important to discuss all of the drugs you take with your doctor, and understand their desired effects and possible side effects. Also, never stop taking a medication and never change your dose or frequency without first consulting your doctor.

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New drugs against migraines block the neuropeptide αCGRP, which leads to vasodilation on the meninges. The same peptide that is formed in the muscles during physical activity protects the heart – which is vital for people with chronic high blood pressure.

The novel migraine prophylaxis is likely to be dangerous for them, as researchers at the University of Zurich have shown in mice. The neuropeptide αCGRP or α Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide, works in two different ways. Directly at the point of release of the nerve cells – for example on the meninges – it leads to inflammation and dilates the blood vessels, which can cause migraine attacks. It affects the heart quite differently, as a team of researchers from the University of Zurich (UZH) has now found out.

Negative effect on the meninges, more positive on heart

As the scientists show from studies with mice, αCGRP is also released from the working skeletal muscles. It gets from the muscle to the heart via blood, where it inhibits the disease-causing changes in the heart caused by chronic high blood pressure.

“It’s the same with humans as with the mouse: physical activity and exercise increase the blood plasma level of αCGRP, which has a positive effect on the heart if the blood pressure is increased,” says study leader Johannes Vogel, professor at the Institute of Veterinary Physiology at UZH.

Therapy option for certain hypertensive patients

In their work, the researchers compared normal mice to those with chronic high blood pressure, who were either physically passive or repeatedly walked voluntarily. It was shown that normal concentrations of αCGRP in the blood plasma are essential for survival and that the positive effects of physical activity on the heart depend on the peptide.

ΑCGRP also protects the heart regardless of its hypotensive properties in higher doses. “In the future, substances that activate the release of αCGRP could be used in patients with high blood pressure who can only be physically very limited, or for whom antihypertensive drugs do not work or do little,” explains Johannes Vogel.

Beware of migraine medication and chronic high blood pressure

The research also revealed another result: In mice with chronic high blood pressure, long-term administration of αCGRP blockers led to life-threatening cardiac dysfunction. Medications that specifically block the neuropeptide have recently been used for migraine prophylaxis. Since the neuropeptide αCGRP is very similar from zebrafish to humans, it must be a central biological mechanism that works in a comparable way in many organisms.

According to the cardiovascular specialist Vogel, the results are therefore also relevant for humans: “αCGRP blockers should only be used to prevent migraine if the patient’s blood pressure is checked regularly.

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Researchers from South Ural State University and the N.D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences are studying polysulphur-nitrogen heterocycles – organic compounds which have antiviral properties and can be applied for the treatment of AIDS. Other universities involved in this collaboration include the University of Zurich (Switzerland), University College London (Great Britain), the University of North Carolina (USA), and the University of Eastern Finland (Finland). One of the most recent articles dedicated to this research was published in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters (Q1).

Original heterocycles deactivate viruses

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a serious illness that results from the human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV). For now, AIDS is an incurable desease; the virus can not be totally destroyed by any currently-known methods, but researchers from all over the world are working to create medicines that can help patients dealing with this illness.

In 2015, South Ural State University and the N.D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry established a laboratory for synthesis of original polysulphur-nitrogen heterocycles and searching for new compounds with high and varied biological activity.

“From the very beginning, we believed the most promising area of research to be the anti-cancer activity of this compound class. However, unexpectedly, it became clear to us that this kind of compound can also have high and selective activity against the feline immunodeficiency virus, which is the closest analog to HIV,” Professor Oleg Rakitin, Doctor of Sciences (Chemistry) says.

The researchers have determined that various heterocyclic structures are promising compounds for fighting AIDS, which is of significant value for the development of both chemistry and biology.

“The main research result of our studies was the discovery of the general mechanism of action of the polysulphur-nitrogen hetrocycles that we synthesized: polysulphur-nitrogen heterocycles with a sulfur-sulfur (or sulfur-selenium) bond can open up within the body with the formation of dithiols, which interact with zinc atoms by almost ‘drawing them out’ of the viral molecules as protein-zinc-thiol complexes, thereby deactivating them,” Oleg Rakitin explains.

It is worth noting that this mechanism of action in antiviral medications has not been observed before. During their research, medications were found among the studied compounds which have both high antiviral activity and low toxicity for typical cells. The discovery of this mechanism allowed the researchers to open up a new class of heterocylic polysulphur-nitrogen compounds that can be utilized as anti-virus medications, as well as the possibility to apply these medications for various viral illnesses with a similar mechanism of action.

International partnerships to achieve the best results

Characteristic feature of this research is in the high level of collaboration, within which the best groups in the world working in different fields of science got to work together. The synthesis and proof of the construction of new compounds was completed in the joint laboratory between SUSU and IOC RAS, the study of their activity against feline immunodeficiency – at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), research on the mechanism of action of heterocyclic structures – at University College London (Great Britain) and the University of North Carolina (USA), and computer modeling of the biological action of our compounds was completed at the University of Western Finland (Finland).

“Recently, our consortium was joined by a group of researchers from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), which studies medicines against the Sporotrichosis infection, which is especially wide-spread in Brazil. It is worth noting that every group uses the newest methods in their research, which allows them to achieve strong results which are reflected in many publications in prestigious journals,” Oleg Rakitin stresses.

The results of this research have been presented to the scientific community at a number of prestigious conferences, including the conference of the American Chemical Society.

At this time, the researchers are searching for the optimal structures (with the highest value on the therapeutic index) for each illness type. The importance of the obtained results is that any given medication can be used for different types of illnesses (cancer, HIV, and more), which makes their development more interesting in a practical sense. Research on the mechanism of previously-synthesized compounds will be continued to treat other illnesses with similar mechanisms of action.

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People taking Hytrin (terazosin) or similar medications to treat high blood pressure and benign prostatic hyperplasia may be less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, an early study suggests.

Parkinson’s patients who use these medications may also see their disease progress more slowly and with fewer complications, its researchers report.

The study, “Enhancing glycolysis attenuates Parkinson’s disease progression in models and clinical databases,” was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Hytrin is indicated for the treatment of non-cancerous prostate enlargement and high blood pressure (hypertension). The medication, available as a generic (terazosin), acts on the alpha-1 adrenergic receptor to block adrenaline’s action, relaxing smooth muscle in both the blood vessels and the prostate, allowing blood and urine, respectively, to flow more easily.

Experts agree that energy metabolism plays a central role in the molecular mechanism of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. In fact, problems in energy metabolism and low levels of cellular energy are common features of this disorder.

Hytrin has been shown to enhance the activity of a protein called phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1), which is involved in a critical energy-producing process known as glycolysis, where the simple sugar glucose is broken down by cells to produce energy. Boosting PGK1 activity increases the number of energy molecules, also known as ATP, within a cell.

Because low levels of ATP have been observed in Parkinson’s, increasing the breakdown of glucose and hence cellular energy, in theory, may slow down or prevent the neurodegenerative processes underlying this disease.

Researchers at Capital Medical University in Beijing, decided to test this hypothesis and investigate whether increasing PGK1 activity levels would change the course of Parkinson’s disease.

Hytrin was found to increase brain ATP levels and slow or prevent nerve cell loss in several models of Parkinson’s (MPTP, rotenone and 6-OHDA-induced or genetic models): mice, rats, flies, and induced pluripotent stem cells. MPTP, rotenone and 6-OHDA are all neurotoxins that induce death of dopamine-producing neurons and mimic Parkinson’s symptoms.

Treatment with this medication increased brain dopamine levels — the chemical messenger that is present in low levels in the brains of Parkinson’s patients — and partially restored motor function in both mice and flies.

Importantly, boosting PGK1 activity was beneficial even when treatment was initiated after the onset of neurodegeneration, suggesting the modulation of this protein’s function could help to slow Parkinson’s progression.

Because Hytrin is prescribed for other diseases, scientists also studied two human databases — the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative and the IBM Watson/Truven database — looking for a possible Hytrin effect in relation to Parkinson’s disease.

These two data sets  included a total of 4,072 individuals on Hytrin, doxazosin, or alfuzosin. The latter two medications produce effects similar to those of Hytrin.

A retrospective analysis on both databases revealed that use of Hytrin and related agents slowed Parkinson’s disease progression, reduced the number of neurodegeneration-related complications, and lessened the risk of a Parkinson’s diagnosis, compared to people not using these medications.

“These findings identify a protein and a pathway that might be targeted to slow or prevent neurodegeneration in PD [Parkinson’s disease] and potentially other neurodegenerative diseases with altered energy balance,” the researchers concluded.

Terazosin, available only by prescription, can cause dizziness and fainting because it lowers blood pressure.

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