{"id":793138,"date":"2026-10-05T23:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T23:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793138\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T23:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T23:40:08","slug":"uab-receives-grant-to-investigate-how-genetics-shape-blood-pressure-response-to-salt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793138\/","title":{"rendered":"UAB receives grant to investigate how genetics shape blood pressure response to salt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/providerdirectory.uabmedicine.org\/provider\/pankaj-arora\/570807\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pankaj Arora<\/a>Pankaj Arora, M.D., M.D., professor of medicine in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uab.edu\/medicine\/cardiovascular\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Division of Cardiovascular Disease<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uab.edu\/home\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">University of Alabama at Birmingham<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uab.edu\/medicine\/home\/heersink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine<\/a>\u00a0and director of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uab.edu\/news\/health\/item\/12608-uab-cardiogenomics-clinic-transforms-cardiac-care-through-genomic-medicine\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UAB Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic<\/a>, has received a five-year R01 grant from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhlbi.nih.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute<\/a>\u00a0to investigate how genetic differences in natriuretic peptide levels influence blood pressure and an individual\u2019s response to dietary salt.<\/p>\n<p>The study addresses a fundamental question in hypertension: Why can the same amount of dietary salt have very different effects on blood pressure from one person to another?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople can have very different blood pressure responses to the same amount of dietary salt,\u201d Arora said. \u201cWe believe genetic differences in the natriuretic peptide system may help explain some of that variation. This study gives us an opportunity to identify those genetic factors and then determine how they affect human physiology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The project will combine large\u2011scale genomic discovery with a controlled clinical physiology study. Arora\u2019s team will analyze genomic data from the NIH Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Program, All of Us and the UK Biobank to identify genetic variants linked to natriuretic peptide levels. These findings will be used to develop a polygenic score estimating an individual\u2019s genetically determined natriuretic peptide levels.<\/p>\n<p>In the second part of the project, the team will enroll 200 adults with hypertension in a genotype-guided clinical study. Participants will be selected based on genetically predicted natriuretic peptide levels, with approximately half having a low polygenic score and half having a high polygenic score.<\/p>\n<p>This genotype-first design is a key feature of the study. Rather than enrolling participants and examining their genetic profiles afterward, researchers will use genetic information to identify participants with different predicted levels of natriuretic peptide and then prospectively study how those individuals respond to changes in salt and volume.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe long-term goal is to use genetic information to better understand cardiovascular biology and ultimately improve how we identify and treat people at risk,\u201d Arora said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>By connecting population-scale genomic discovery with controlled human physiology, the study aims to move beyond simply identifying genetic associations and toward understanding how those genetic differences affect cardiovascular function. The findings could help establish a foundation for future precision-medicine approaches to hypertension and cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pankaj AroraPankaj Arora, M.D., M.D., professor of medicine in the\u00a0Division of Cardiovascular Disease\u00a0at the\u00a0University of Alabama at Birmingham\u00a0Marnix&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[916,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-793138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-genetics","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}