Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

Pros and Cons of Drug Stabilizers for Arterial  Elasticity as an Alternative or Adjunct to Diuretics and Vasodilators in the Management of Hypertension.

Author, and Content Consultant to e-SERIES A: Cardiovascular Diseases: Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC

and

Article Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

This article presents the 2013 Thought Frontier on Hypertension and Vascular Compliance.

Conceptual development of the subject is presented in the following nine parts:

1.        Physiology of Circulation and Role of Arterial Elasticity

2.      Isolated Systolic Hypertension caused by Arterial Stiffening may be inadequately treated by Diuretics or Vasodilatation Antihypertensive Medications

3.         Physiology of Circulation and Compensatory Mechanism of Arterial Elasticity

4.         Vascular Compliance – The Potential for Novel Therapies

• Novel Mechanism for Disease Etiology: Modulation of Nuclear and Cytoskeletal Actin Polymerization.
• Genetic Therapy targeting Vascular Conductivity 
• Regenerative Medicine for Vasculature Function Protection

5.        In addition to curtailing high pressures, stabilizing BP variability is a potential target for management of hypertension

6.        Mathematical Modeling: Arterial stiffening  explains much of primary hypertension

7.         Classification of Blood Pressure and Hypertensive Treatment Best Practice of Care in the US

8.         Genetic Risk for High Blood Pressure

9.         Is it Hypertension or Physical Inactivity: Cardiovascular Risk and Mortality – New results in 3/2013.

Summary By Justin D. Pearlman MD ME PhD MA FACC

1.       Physiology of Circulation and Role of Arterial Elasticity

• Simplistically, high blood pressure stems from too much volume (salt water) for the vascular space, or conversely, too little space for the volume. Biological signals, such as endothelin, hypoxia, acidosis, nitric oxide, can modify vascular volume by constricting muscles in blood vessel walls. Less simplistically the physics of circulation are governed by numerous factors, with essentials detailed below.
• The vascular space has two major circuits: pulmonary (lungs) and systemic (body).
• Compliance (C)  relates change in volume (ΔV) to change in pressure (ΔP) as a measure of the strength of elasticity, where elasticity summarizes the intrinsic forces that  return to original shape after deformation: C = ΔV/ΔP . Those values can be estimated by ultrasound imaging with Doppler blood velocity estimation, by MRI, or invasively. Related properties can also be measured, such as wave propagation time or fractional flow reserve.
• The vascular system is dynamic, with frequency components and reactive elements. The fundamental frequency is governed by the heart rate delivering a stroke volume forward into the vasculature; a heart rate of 60/minute corresponds to the frequency of 1 Hertz (1 cycle/second). The pressure rise due to the ejection of stroke volume is called the pulse pressure.
• Numerous factors affect blood flow, including blood composition (affected by anemia or blood dilution), leakiness of vessels, elasticity, wave propagation, streamlines, viscosity, osmotic pressure (affected by protein deficiency and other factors),
• In a static system, the driving force relates linearly flow by way of resistance (R  in units of dyn·s·cm⁻⁵): V=IR (Ohm’s law).
  • Pulmonary:
  • Systemic:
• In a dynamic, reactive system, the relation between the driving potential (pressure gradient), and current (blood flow) is governed by a differential equation. However, use of complex numbers and exponentials recovers simplicity similar to Ohm’s law:
  • Variables take the form , where t is time, s is a complex parameter, and A is a complex scalar. Complex values simply mean two dimensional, e.g., magnitude (as in resistance) plus phase shift (to account for reactive components).
  • Complex version of Ohm’s law:  where V and I are the complex scalars in the voltage and current respectively and Z is the complex impedance.
  • Frequency dependent “resistance” is captured by the term impedance.

• Breathing in increases the return of blood to the heart, adding to pulse variation.
• Dynamic elastance  (Ea_dyn)  relates volume variation (VVS) to pressure variation (PPV): Ea_dyn=PPV/SVV
  • PPV(%) = 100% × (PP_max − PP_min)/[(PP_max + PP_min)/2)]
    • where PP_max and PP_min are the maximum and minimum pulse pressures determined during a single  respiratory cycle
  • SVV(%) = 100% × [(SV_max − SV_min)/SV_mean]
    • where SV_max and SV_min  are the maximum and minimum standard deviation of arterial pressure about the mean arterial pressure during a single respiratory cycle
• The nervous system provides both stimulants and inhibitors (sympathetic and vagal nerves) to regulate blood vessel wall muscle tone and also heart rate. Many medications, and anesthetic agents in particular, reduce those responses to stimuli, so the vessels dilate, vascular impedance lowers, pressures drop, and autoregulation is impaired.

• Diuretics aim to decrease volume of circulating fluid, vasodilators aim to increase the vascular space, and elasticity treatments will aim to preserve or improve the ability to accommodate changes in volume of fluid.
  • Vessel dilation near the skin promotes heat loss.

• Vascular elasticity is impaired by atherosclerosis, menopause, and endothelial dysfunction (impaired nitric oxide signals  response, impaired endothelin response).

• Elastance in a cyclic pressure system of systole-diastole (contraction-dilation) presents impedance as a pulsatile load on the heart. Inotropy describes the generation of pressure by cardiac contraction, lusiotropy the compliance of the heart to accept filling with minimal back pressure to the lungs. Chronic exposure to elevated vascular impedance leads to impairment of lusiotropy (diastolic failure, stiff heart) and inotropy (systolic failure, weak heart).

2.      Isolated Systolic Hypertension caused by Arterial Stiffening may be inadequately treated by Diuretics or Vasodilatation Antihypertensive Medications

• Stiff or “lead pipe” blood vessels drop pressure precipitously to dangerously low levels in response to diuretics.
• Stiff walls due to fibrosis or scar tissue have limited ability to dilate
• Red clover isoflavones improve vascular compliance loss from menopause.
• Fish oils may improve loss of vascular compliance from diabetes.

3. Physiology of Circulation and Compensatory Mechanism of Arterial Elasticity

Antihypertensive agents have focused on the following approaches:

• Reduced volume (diuretics)

  • Diuretics enhance renal excretion of sodium. Sodium is the major determinant of circulating volume. Too much blood volume for the amount of vascular space elevates blood pressure. Clinical trials show that use of diuretics to lower blood pressure can prevent strokes, non-inferior to vasodilators and recommended as first line agents.

1. The most common prescriptions, a mild diuretic, hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), is known to improve blood vessel compliance by reducing cell turgor, which explains why its full onset of benefit as well as its slow offset when stopped can take more than one month.
2. Chlorthalidone  – Some evidence suggests that chlorthalidone may be superior to hydrochlorothiazide for the treatment of hypertension. However, a recent study concluded: chlorthalidone in older adults was not associated with fewer adverse cardiovascular events or deaths than hydrochlorothiazide. However, it was associated with a greater incidence of electrolyte abnormalities, particularly hypokalemia.

• Increased vascular space (vasodilation)

  • Alternatively, the pressure can be lowered by increasing the vascular space for a given vascular volume. Examples of mediators for arterial tone (degree of dilation) include nitric oxide, prostacyclin and endothelin.

• Reduced pulsatile force (beta blockers)

These work by blocking certain nerve and hormonal signals to the heart and blood vessels, thus lowering blood pressure. Frequently prescribed beta blockers include

• metoprolol (Lopressor, Toprol XL)
• carvedilol (Coreg)
• nadolol (Corgard)
• penbutolol (Levatol).
• Metabolized nebivolol increases vascular NO production, involves endothelial ß2-adrenergic receptor ligation, with a subsequent rise in endothelial free [Ca2+]i and endothelial NO synthase–dependent NO production

• Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors

These allow blood vessels to widen by preventing the hormone angiotensin from affecting blood vessels. Frequently prescribed ACE inhibitors include captopril (Capoten), lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril) and ramipril (Altace).

• Angiotensin II receptor blockers

These help blood vessels relax by blocking the action of angiotensin. Frequently prescribed angiotensin II receptor blockers include losartan (Cozaar), olmesartan (Benicar) and valsartan (Diovan).
Another very commonly prescribed drug class of medication counteracts hardening of arteries.

Atheroma lipids have enzyme systems that explicitly disassemble cholesterol esters and reconstruct them inside blood vessel walls,e.g.,  Anacetrapib, Genetic variants that improve cholesterol levels are stimulating development of additional medications.

We can propose that atheroma build up in arterial blood vessel walls constitutes a maladaptive defense against aneurysm and risk of vessel rupture from hypertension.

Arguably, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors,  statin therapy is a second example of a medication that helps protect vascular elasticity, both by its lipid effects and its anti-inflammatory effects.

The best-selling statin is atorvastatin, marketed as Lipitor (manufactured by Pfizer) and Torvast. By 2003, atorvastatin became the best-selling pharmaceutical in history,^[4] with Pfizer reporting sales of US$12.4 billion in 2008.^[5] As of 2010, a number of statinsare on the market: atorvastatin (Lipitor and Torvast), fluvastatin (Lescol), lovastatin (Mevacor, Altocor, Altoprev), pitavastatin(Livalo, Pitava), pravastatin (Pravachol, Selektine, Lipostat), rosuvastatin (Crestor) and simvastatin (Zocor, Lipex).^[6] Several combination preparations of a statin and another agent, such as ezetimibe/simvastatin, are also available.

References for Statins from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statin

Clinical Considerations of Statin Therapy’s manifold effects, in

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/08/statins-nonlipid-effects-on-vascular-endothelium-through-enos-activation/

Compensatory Effects in the Physiology of Circulation

Before declaring vessel elasticity a new and highly desirable treatment target, consider that it is not firmly established that hardening of arteries (loss of elasticity) is entirely maladaptive.

In parallel with any focus on increasing vascular elasticity or compliance, each of the issues discussed, below merits scrutiny and investigation.

Cardiac Circulation Dynamics

Endothelium morphology, rheological properties of intra vasculature fluid dynamics and blood viscosity provided explanation for shear stress of vessels under arterial pressure

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/28/special-considerations-in-blood-lipoproteins-viscosity-assessment-and-treatment/

and

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/28/what-is-the-role-of-plasma-viscosity-in-hemostasis-and-vascular-disease-risk/

Aging and Vasculature Diminished Elasticity

While among other reasons for Hypertension increasing prevalence with aging, arterial stiffening is one.

Yet, stiffer vessels are more efficient at transmitting pressure to distal targets. With aging, muscle mass diminishes markedly and the contribution to circulation from skeletal muscle tissue compressions combined with competent venous valves fades.

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/27/endothelial-dysfunction-diminished-availability-of-cepcs-increasing-cvd-risk-for-macrovascular-disease-therapeutic-potential-of-cepcs/

and

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/19/clinical-trials-results-for-endothelin-system-pathophysiological-role-in-chronic-heart-failure-acute-coronary-syndromes-and-mi-marker-of-disease-severity-or-genetic-determination/

and

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/13/peroxisome-proliferator-activated-receptor-ppar-gamma-receptors-activation-pparγ-transrepression-for-angiogenesis-in-cardiovascular-disease-and-pparγ-transactivation-for-treatment-of-dia/

Aging and Myocardial Diminished Contractility and Ejection Fraction

With aging heart contractility diminishes. These issues can cause under perfusion of tissues, inadequate nutrient blood delivery (ischemia), lactic acidosis, tissue dysfunction and multi-organ failure. Hardened arteries may compensate. Thus, pharmacotherapy to increase Arterial Elasticity may be counterindicated for patients with mild to progressive CHF.

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/05/bioengineering-of-vascular-and-tissue-models/

and

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/20/nitric-oxide-and-sepsis-hemodynamic-collapse-and-the-search-for-therapeutic-options/

and

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/17/chronic-heart-failure-personalized-medicine-two-gene-test-predicts-response-to-beta-blocker-bucindolol/
Our biosystems are highly interdependent, and we cannot leap to conclusions without careful thorough evidence. Increasing arterial elastance will lower vascular impedance and change the frequency components of our pulsatile perfusion system.

MOST comprehensive review of the Human Cardiac Conduction System presented to date:

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/28/genetics-of-conduction-disease-atrioventricular-av-conduction-disease-block-gene-mutations-transcription-excitability-and-energy-homeostasis/

Diminished contractility will increase the amount of energy needed to maintain circulation. It will change efficiency dramatically – consider the difference between periodically pushing someone sitting on a swing at the resonance frequency if the pendulum versus significantly off resonance.

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/14/mitochondrial-metabolism-and-cardiac-function/

and

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/28/mitochondrial-damage-and-repair-under-oxidative-stress/

Increased Arterial Elasticity – Potential Risk to Myocardium

The hypothesis that we should focus on cellular therapies to increase vascular compliance may decrease the circulation efficiency and result in worsening of cardiac right ventricular morphology and development of Dilated cardiomyopathy and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (muscle thickening and diastolic failure), an undesirable outcome resulting from an attempt to treat the hypertension.

4. Vascular Compliance – The Potential of Noval Therapies

• Novel Mechanism for Disease Etiology for the Cardiac Phenotype: Modulation of Nuclear and Cytoskeletal Actin Polymerization.

Lamin A/C and emerin regulate MKL1–SRF activity by modulating actin dynamics

Chin Yee Ho,

Diana E. Jaalouk,

Maria K. Vartiainen

& Jan Lammerding

Nature (2013) doi:10.1038/nature12105

Published online 05 May 2013

Affiliations

Cornell University, Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology/Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

Chin Yee Ho &

Jan Lammerding

Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Department of Medicine, Boston 02115, Massachusetts, USA

Chin Yee Ho,

Diana E. Jaalouk &

Jan Lammerding

Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

Maria K. Vartiainen

Present address: American University of Beirut, Department of Biology, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon.

Diana E. Jaalouk

Contributions

C.Y.H., D.E.J. and J.L. conceived and designed the overall project, with valuable help from M.K.V. C.Y.H. and D.E.J. performed the experiments. C.Y.H., D.E.J. and J.L. analysed data. C.Y.H. and J.L. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author Jan Lammerding

Laminopathies, caused by mutations in the LMNA gene encoding the nuclear envelope proteins lamins A and C, represent a diverse group of diseases that include Emery–Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, and Hutchison–Gilford progeria syndrome1. Most LMNA mutations affect skeletal and cardiac muscle by mechanisms that remain incompletely understood. Loss of structural function and altered interaction of mutant lamins with (tissue-specific) transcription factors have been proposed to explain the tissue-specific phenotypes1. Here we report in mice that lamin-A/C-deficient (Lmna^−/−) and Lmna^N195K/N195K mutant cells have impaired nuclear translocation and downstream signalling of the mechanosensitive transcription factor megakaryoblastic leukaemia 1 (MKL1), a myocardin family member that is pivotal in cardiac development and function2. Altered nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling of MKL1 was caused by altered actin dynamics in Lmna^−/− and Lmna^N195K/N195K mutant cells. Ectopic expression of the nuclear envelope protein emerin, which is mislocalized in Lmnamutant cells and also linked to EDMD and DCM, restored MKL1 nuclear translocation and rescued actin dynamics in mutant cells. These findings present a novel mechanism that could provide insight into the disease aetiology for the cardiac phenotype in many laminopathies, whereby lamin A/C and emerin regulate gene expression through modulation of nuclear and cytoskeletal actin polymerization.

 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12105.html

• Genetic Therapy to Conductivity Disease

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/01/ngs-cardiovascular-diagnostics-long-qt-genes-sequenced-a-potential-replacement-for-molecular-pathology/

• Regenerative Medicine for Vasculature Function Protection

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/29/positioning-a-therapeutic-concept-for-endogenous-augmentation-of-cepcs-therapeutic-indications-for-macrovascular-disease-coronary-cerebrovascular-and-peripheral/

and

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/28/cardiovascular-outcomes-function-of-circulating-endothelial-progenitor-cells-cepcs-exploring-pharmaco-therapy-targeted-at-endogenous-augmentation-of-cepcs/

and

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/02/28/the-heart-vasculature-protection-a-concept-based-pharmacological-therapy-including-thymosin/

5. Stabilizing BP Variability is the next Big Target in Hypertension Management

Hypertension caused by Arterial Stiffening is Ineffectively Treated by Diuretics and Vasodilatation Antihypertensives

Barcelona, Spain – An aging population grappling with rising rates of hypertension and other cardiometabolic risk factors should prompt an overhaul of how hypertension is diagnosed and monitored and should spur development of drugs with entirely new mechanisms of action, one expert says. Speaking here at the 2013 International Conference on Prehypertension and Cardiometabolic Syndrome, meeting cochair Dr Reuven Zimlichman (Tel Aviv University, Israel) argued that the definitions of hypertension, as well as the risk-factor tables used to guide treatment, are no longer appropriate for a growing number of patients.

Most antihypertensives today work by producing vasodilation or decreasing blood volume and so are ineffective treatments in ISH patients. In the future, he predicts, “we will have to start looking for a totally different medication that will aim to improve or at least to stabilize arterial elasticity: medication that might affect factors that determine the stiffness of the arteries, like collagen, like fibroblasts. Those are not the aim of any group of antihypertensive medications today.”

Zimlichman believes existing databases could be used to develop algorithms that take this progression of disease into account, in order to better guide hypertension management. He also points out that new ambulatory blood-pressure-monitoring devices also measure arterial elasticity. “Unquestionably, these will improve our ability to diagnose both the status of the arteries and the changes of the arteries with time as a result of our treatment. So if we treat the patient and we see no improvement in arterial elasticity, or the patient is worse, something is wrong, something is not working—either the patient is not taking the medication, or our choice of medication is not appropriate, or the dose is insufficient, etc.”

http://www.theheart.org/article/1502067.do

Oslo, Norway – New research that is only just starting to be digested by the hypertension community indicates that visit-to-visit variability in blood-pressure readings will likely become another way of looking for “at-risk” hypertensive patients and in fact is likely to be more reliable as an indicator of cardiovascular risk than the currently used mean BP.

The Goal of Stabilizing BP variability 

Discussing the importance of this issue for guidelines and clinical practice, Dr Tony Heagerty (University of Manchester, UK) told the recent European Society of Hypertension (ESH) European Meeting on Hypertension 2010: “We are poking around in the dark, offering treatment blankly across a large community, and probably treating a lot of people who don’t need to be treated, while not necessarily treating the highest-risk patients. We should stop being reassured by ‘occasional’ normal BPs. The whole game now is, can we improve the identification of our ‘at-risk’ individuals?”

Heagerty was speaking at a special plenary session on late-breaking research discussing BP variability as a risk factor. This issue has emerged following new analyses reported at the ACC meeting and published in a number of papers in the Lancet and Lancet Neurology earlier this year, which showed that variability in blood pressure is a much stronger determinant of both stroke and coronary disease outcome than average blood pressure.

http://www.theheart.org/article/1093553.do

Three years later, 2/1/2013, Zimlichman also argued that definitions of essential and secondary hypertension have changed very little over the past few decades and have typically only been tweaked up or down related to other CV risk factors. Diastolic hypertension has been the primary goal of treatment, and treatment goals have not adequately taken patient age into account (in whom arterial stiffening plays a larger role), and they have typically relied too heavily on threshold cutoffs, rather than the “linear progression” of risk factors and their impact on organ damage.

Hypertension.2013; 61: 931doi: 10.1161/​HYP.0b013e31829399b2