Genetics, Ancestry, and Hypertension: Implications for Targeted Antihypertensive Therapies

Hypertension is the most common chronic condition seen by physicians in ambulatory care and a condition for which life-long medications are commonly prescribed. There is evidence for genetic factors influencing blood pressure variation in populations and response to medications. This review summarizes recent genetic discoveries that surround blood pressure, hypertension, and antihypertensive drug response from genome-wide association studies, while highlighting ancestry-specific findings and any potential implication for drug therapy targets. Genome-wide association studies have identified several novel loci for inter-individual variation of blood pressure and hypertension risk in the general population. Evidence from pharmacogenetic studies suggests that genes influence the blood pressure response to antihypertensive drugs, although results are somewhat inconsistent across studies. There is still much work that remains to be done to identify genes both for efficacy and adverse events of antihypertensive medications.