AIM HY Consortium Lead, Professor Phil Chowienczyk speaks about AIM HY study.
Hypertension is recognised as the biggest contributor to the global burden of disease, a burden that is particularly great in ethnic minorities in the UK and in lower and middle-income countries (LMIC).
The objectives of the AIM HY consortium are to personalize the selection of established drugs to provide a more effective treatment of hypertension for ethnic minority groups in the UK and in LMIC populations such as Africa. The ultimate aim is personalization of treatment according to an objective blood test that captures the environmental and genetic determinants of response to treatment within ethnically diverse and admixed populations.
Goals of the Consortium
- Identification of AIM and/or metabolites predicting response to treatment in existing multi-ethnic cohorts as “proof-of-concept”.
- Optimal step one and two treatment for ethnic minorities in the UK in whom the need for effective blood pressure control is greatest.
- AIM/metabolite prediction of a personalized step one and step two treatment in a clinical setting using either a single drug or combination of two drugs.
- Identifying mechanisms that determine response to first line single drug and combination therapy and “drugable” targets for resistant hypertension.
- Identifying groups likely to respond to non-standard combinations of existing drugs and new classes of anti-hypertensive agents.
- A bioresource of patients in these groups in whom new approaches/novel drugs can be examined.
- Predicting optimal treatment in lower and middle-income countries (LMIC).