A Vaccine For High Blood Pressure?

The common virus CMV - cytomegalovirus - infects almost everybody in the world over age 40. A new study shows how it could be implicated in hypertension - high blood pressure - a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.

"We found that CMV infection alone led to an increase in high blood pressure, and when combined with a high-cholesterol diet, the infection actually induced atherosclerosis in a mouse aorta," says [Dr. Clyde] Crumpacker. "This suggests that further research needs to be directed at viral causes of vascular injury. Some cases of hypertension might be treated or prevented by antiviral therapy or a vaccine against CMV."