A potential role for zinc

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• Calcium and potassium are involved in regulating blood pressure, but a new study suggests that zinc may also play a role.
• The researchers made this discovery accidentally while studying the role of zinc in rat brain function.
• If additional research confirms the study’s conclusion, the results could eventually lead to new drugs to control high blood pressure or high blood pressure.

Doctors use a variety of strategies to help people manage high blood pressure. When exercise and dietary measures, such as increasing potassium intake and reducing salt intake, are not enough to keep blood pressure within acceptable limits, there are many medications available.

Each of them try to either reduce cardiac output or decrease peripheral resistance in the body’s arterial system. One mechanism for reducing resistance to blood flow is to relax the muscles that surround the arteries and arterioles so that blood can flow more freely.

“Fundamental discoveries dating back more than 60 years have shown that the levels of calcium and potassium in the muscles that surround blood vessels control how they expand and contract,” say the authors of a recent study. However, these scientists unexpectedly found that a metal, zinc, can also play a role in maintaining vascular tone.

The lead study author Dr. Scott Ayton, Ph.D. says:

“Zinc is an important metal ion in biology and since calcium and potassium are known to control blood flow and pressure, it is surprising that the role of zinc has not yet been recognized.”

Dr. Ayton adds, “Zinc has essentially the opposite effect on blood flow and pressure.”

The main author of the study is Dr. Ashenafi Betrie, Ph.D., and co-senior author is Dr. Christine Wright, Ph.D. You and Dr. Ayton are all affiliated with the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Parkville, Australia and the University of Melbourne, also in Australia.

The study appears in the journal Nature Communications.

“Our discovery that zinc is also important was a coincidence because we were researching the brain, not blood pressure,” says Dr. Company

Dr. Betrie recalls, “We were studying the effects of zinc-based drugs on brain function in Alzheimer’s disease when we noticed a marked and unexpected drop in blood pressure in the rat models treated with the drugs.”

The researchers’ discovery could explain some of the things that experts already know about zinc. First, zinc deficiency has been linked to hypertension in animal models. Second, the gene responsible for maintaining zinc levels in cells is also linked to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases.

In human studies, however, there is no evidence of an association between dietary zinc and high blood pressure. The amount of zinc in the bloodstream does not correlate with the amount in the cell. This study found that the amount of zinc in cells is important.

High blood pressure occurs when the smooth muscle cells in the walls of the arteries and arterioles contract, narrowing these vessels through which blood must flow.

The blood pushes out the walls of these narrowed passages as it penetrates its path, creating a potentially destructive increase in pressure to the outside. This can lead to damaged or even ruptured blood vessels.

Calcium in the muscles causes this tightening. Calcium is regulated by potassium in muscle tissue. The amount of both metals is influenced by surrounding cells such as endothelial cells and sensory nerves, which in turn are regulated by the potassium and calcium they contain.

The researchers found that zinc affects the muscles, endothelial cells and sensory nerves together, reducing the amount of calcium in the muscles and relaxing them. This in turn leads to increased blood flow and lower blood pressure.

Dr. Winston Morgan of the University of East London in the UK told Medical News Today that while other studies have suggested a possible role for zinc in high blood pressure, this one specifically “explores what happens when intracellular zinc is regulated up or down becomes”. Ionophores and chelators. ”

Ionophores are chemical vehicles that transport ions such as zinc across a cell membrane while chelators bind them. The researchers suspect that increasing intracellular zinc with an ionophore may have resulted in lower blood pressure in the rats studied.

The scientists also conducted laboratory experiments on selected blood vessels from rats and humans and found that these vessels contracted when they reduced intracellular zinc with a chelator.

Dr. Morgan added, “As exciting as the results are, they only give an indication of the proposed mechanism.” They also leave many important questions unanswered. The study’s authors state that more research is needed to examine how zinc affects different cell types and pathologies.

The researchers also find that the blood vessels of the heart and brain have been shown to be more sensitive to zinc than blood vessels elsewhere in the body.

The discovery of the study could suggest a promising avenue for further investigation. Donna Arnett, Ph.D. – a professor of epidemiology at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health at Lexington – warned MNT that “based on the first study conducted in mesenteric arteries in rats, there should be no recommendation for humans to start zinc because it is there are no studies on this subject. “

Dr. Morgan also noted, “In this study, the external addition of zinc had no effect on vascular tone. It was only effective when the intracellular levels were artificially increased with the ionophores, which are rarely a therapeutic option. “

If subsequent research finally confirms zinc’s role in controlling blood pressure, a new treatment option for high blood pressure would be welcome.

Like Dr. Wright says, “Although there are a number of existing drugs used to lower blood pressure, many people develop resistance to them.” It is also true that certain existing drugs can have problematic side effects in some people.

Dr. Wright concludes:

“New zinc-based blood pressure drugs would be a great result for a chance discovery, reminding us that research is not just about looking for something, it’s just looking.”

source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/a-potential-role-for-zinc/