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U.Va. RESEARCHERS AWARDED $10 MILLION GRANT FROM THE NATIONAL HEART, BLOOD AND LUNG INSTITUTE FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE STUDY
Researchers led by U.Va. Health System pathologist, Robin Felder, Ph.D., have been awarded $10.2 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The grant will allow them to further their studies of the genetic basis for high blood pressure (hypertension) and salt sensitivity.

The research team consists of Felder, Dr. Robert M. Carey, the David A. Harrison, III Distinguished Professor of Medicine at U.Va, and Dr. Pedro A. Jose, professor of pediatrics, physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Felder’s work will examine the mechanisms associated with normal sodium handling in the kidney and how their failure contributes to elevated blood pressure. Carey will recruit 3000 volunteers who will receive genetic screens to identify gene variants that contribute to elevated blood pressure. Jose’s research will determine how dopamine receptors and angiotensin II receptors regulate each other. The information gleaned from these studies can provide new insights into how hypertension works, how it can be tested and how it can be treated.

“Through these grant funds, we wish to stimulate broader research in the area of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and salt sensitivity,” said Felder. “It’s important because these diseases account for more disability and death than the next top five causes combined.”

High blood pressure and salt sensitivity are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in this country.  At least 100 million Americans (almost one in two) suffer from high blood pressure or salt sensitivity. Left untreated, hypertension can cause major organ damage in unsuspecting individuals. It also increases a person’s risk for heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and even blindness. Salt sensitivity, an exaggerated increase in blood pressure following a high salt meal, is even more insidious, because individuals with this disease have normal blood pressure, but still suffer from the same debilitating end points as someone with hypertension.

June 24, 2004