Iceland's Decode Maps High Blood Pressure Gene Wed Jun 26,12:18
PM ET
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Icelandic biotechnology company deCODE genetics
said on Wednesday it had located a gene linked to high blood pressure that
could eventually lead to new medicines tackling the underlying cause of
the condition.
Set up in 1996, deCODE is trawling
Iceland's unique genetic heritage--which has remained stable since the
Vikings arrived in the 9th and 10th centuries--to work out the links
between genes and common diseases. Its most advanced programme concerns
genes believed to play a role in schizophrenia.
The company said the discovery of the blood pressure gene on chromosome
18 was an important and encouraging advance in understanding the genetics
of high blood pressure, or hypertension, which affects roughly one in four
adults in the industrialised world and can lead to heart attack and
stroke.
But any new blood pressure treatments based on the latest discovery are
likely to be more than 10 years away, although diagnostic tests for
genetic propensity to the condition could come a lot sooner.
DeCODE made its discovery after studying data on more than 5,000
Icelandic patients receiving treatment for hypertension and then using its
comprehensive genealogy database to draw up 120 extended families with the
condition.
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