TTHealthWatch is a weekly podcast from Texas Tech. In it, Elizabeth Tracey, director of electronic media for Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, and Rick Lange, MD, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, take a look at the leading medical stories of the week.
Today’s subjects consist of the advantages of “weekend warrior” working out, an interfering RNA for high blood pressure, the effect of concussion on IQ in kids, and listening devices and dementia.
Program notes:
0:40 Interfering RNA and high blood pressure
1:42 Injected to hinder angiotensinogen
2:43 Have knocked it out prior to
3:24 Hearing help usage and dementia development
4:24 Two groups hired
5:24 In those with more danger elements it assisted
6:21 Not at threat does not actually assist
6:51 Benefits of workout simply on weekends
7:51 90,000 people, 30,000 active
8:51 Can focus activity
9:22 IQ after pediatric concussion
10:20 No medically significant decreases
11:20 British football association research study
12:00 End
Records:
Elizabeth: Does concussion have any influence on IQ in kids?
Rick: Impacting RNA to deal with high blood pressure?
Elizabeth: Do listening devices assist with regard to the advancement of dementia?
Rick: And is it healthy to be a weekend warrior?
Elizabeth: That’s what we’re discussing today on TTHealthWatch, your weekly take a look at the medical headings from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso. I’m Elizabeth Tracey, a Baltimore-based medical reporter.
Rick: And I’m Rick Lange, president of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, where I’m likewise dean at the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.
Elizabeth: Rick, I want to turn very first to the New England Journalif you’re all right with that– this hormonal agent angiotensinogen and, gosh, what’s it pertain to high blood pressure?
Rick: Well, Elizabeth, it has a lot to do with high blood pressure. Angiotensinogen is in fact made in the liver and it’s processed by a variety of various enzymes, renin-angiotensin transforming enzymes, and these specific substances are accountable for keeping water and triggering tightness of the capillary, all of which can increase high blood pressure.
We have things like ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers that are presently on the marketplace to resolve this. This is an unique method of attending to not the subsequent items of the path, however the angiotensinogen.
What this is, it’s a research study utilizing RNA disturbance to impact the production of angiotensinogen at the level of the liver. What RNA disturbance does is, it connects little pieces of RNA to a particle. The particle goes into the liver and it avoids the production of angiotensinogen so the protein is actually never ever made.
In this specific research study, a stage I study, so it’s a preliminary dosing research study, they utilize dosages as low as 10 mg to as much as 800 mg. By the method, it’s injected, it’s followed for 4 weeks and approximately 24 weeks to see whether it triggers decrease of the protein, is this safe, and more significantly is, can it lower high blood pressure?
What it did program is that it efficiently lowers angiotensinogen production by more than 90%. And in individuals with high blood pressure, it reduced their high blood pressure considerably, even 24 weeks after a single injection.
More particularly, it decreased the systolic high blood pressure by more than 20 mm and the diastolic pressure by more than 10 mm. By the method, there weren’t any severe negative effects in the 107 clients in whom the drug was checked.
Elizabeth: This sounds, obviously, like truly excellent news. I think I would simply call out that RNAs are simply beloveds of research study today, aren’t they? All the various types that we have out there that we neglected for a long time.
Let’s talk a bit about something we began to discuss prior to we were tape-recording, which is, gosh, angiotensinogen. I’m simply thinking that once we knock it out, we’re going to discover that there is more to that feline than we believed.
Rick: Well, we’ve currently knocked out a few of the other items in the path and we understand that if we offer excessive, it can trigger hypotension or low high blood pressure. It can trigger raised potassium. As you kept in mind, this is a little research study in a little number of clients, none of whom had considerable comorbid illness. These are fairly “healthy” individuals with high blood pressure. For evidence of principle, I believe it’s really great to be able to provide a one-time injection and have decrease in blood pres