0:00
Hello.
My name is Patricia Munroe, and I'm
the Professor of Molecular Medicine
at Barts and The London School
of Medicine and Dentistry
at Queen Mary University of
London in the United Kingdom.
My research interest is finding
the genes for hypertension,
subsequently determining
the function of these genes,
and then exploring their potential
as new therapeutic targets
for cardiovascular disease.
0:26
In this lecture, I'm going to
describe what hypertension is
and why it's important
for us to study,
then leading onto the strategies
for finding genes for hypertension.
And these are primarily focused
on using linkage analysis
and genome-wide association studies.
I will then describe some
of the primary results
from the genome scans, leading
to short descriptions of some
of the new candidate
genes and pathways,
and then finishing with an overview
of ongoing work in the area.
0:55
So the World Health Organization
and International Societies
define hypertension or high blood
pressure as a blood pressure
recording of greater than
or equal to 140 over 90
millimeters of mercury.
So measure analysis of
over a million individuals
from prospective studies have
indicated that increasing levels
of blood pressure lead
to increases in the risk
of cardiovascular disease, for
example, the rate of heart attack,
stroke, and renal disease.
And hypertension is common.
It affects over a
billion people worldwide.
And a couple of years ago,
the World Health Organization
showed that hypertension
causes 4 and 1/2%
of the global disease burden.
Gene discovery is seen
as an important root
for finding out about
blood pressure mechanisms.
And also, it has the
potential for identifying
new therapeutic targets.
