Rare genetic mutations protect against hypertension

April 7, 2008 | Source: KurzweilAI

Yale University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have found that rare genetic variants can be associated with a dramatically lower risk of developing high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is a condition that affects a billion people worldwide and contributes significantly to heart and kidney disease, and stroke. About 100 million people worldwide carrying the mutations are protected from high blood pressure.

That rare mutations may collectively play a large part in the development of common yet complex diseases such as hypertension also has implications for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as diabetes and schizophrenia. It underscores the importance of sequencing the genome of many individuals to discover disease-causing mutations.

Yale University News Release and Howard Hughes Medical Institute News Release