OU researchers' discovery could help fight aging

A newly-discovered anti-aging gene could be manipulated to stop or even prevent high blood pressure, a leading contributor to early death, researchers with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center said.

Persistent high blood pressure, also called hypertension, can lead to stroke, heart attacks and kidney failure. About one-third of Americans struggle with the condition, leading researcher Dr. Zhongjie Sun said.

Sun said an anti-aging gene called klotho decreases as humans age while hypertension tends to increase. Increasing the expression or output of the gene in lab animals reduced blood pressure and reversed kidney damage from hypertension.

Sun said testing on humans is the next step, and it would be years before a therapy could be sold.

Such a drug could be injected or mixed as a protein powder into shakes. Each dose is expected to last about 12 weeks, compared with daily doses of most current treatments.

"All of us will be and should be extremely hopeful this can occur,” said OU cardiologist Dr. Dwight Reynolds. He said it’s possible the therapy could protect other organs — such as the brain and eyes — from conditions related to aging.

Sun’s research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Reynolds Oklahoma Center on Aging. His study is published this month in the journal Hypertension.