LONDON: Scientists at a British pharmaceutical firm have developed a vaccine against high blood pressure, an advance over pills that cause side effects, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

The Daily Mail said that ‘Protherics’ in Cheshire has successfully tested the vaccine on people and plans to stage further tests with an improved formula.

The injection uses a protein found in limpets, a common shellfish, to attack angiotensin, a hormone produced by the liver that raises blood pressure by narrowing arteries, according to the daily. The vaccine turns the body’s immune system against the hormone, the newspaper said.

Protherics said the drug will make it much easier for people who have until now had to rely on pills with possible side effects to control their blood pressure. “Improving medicine in this way could save thousands from life-threatening complications such as heart attacks or strokes,” Andrew Heath, a company researcher, was quoted as saying.

The vaccine would require just three injections with a booster every six months. Hoping to put its product on the market within five years, Protherics is planning trials of a new injection that is 10 times better at stimulating the immune system than its original formula, the newspaper said. The company reported few side effects, including 10 percent of testers complaining of a brief, flu-like illness.

Professor Graham MacGregor of Britain’s Blood Pressure Association welcomed news of a vaccine against high blood pressure. “Raised blood pressure is the most important cause of death from strokes and heart attacks in the UK,” he was quoted as saying.

“If you have to take blood pressure tablets, you have to take them for the rest of your life and some people find that difficult. Finding other and better ways of trying to lower blood pressure without side effects would be very welcome.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C05%5C13%5Cstory_13-5-2007_pg7_8