Washington, Feb 15 : Researchers at University of Kentucky have found that blood pressure drug, Aliskiren, not only reduces blood pressure but also lowers artery-clogging lesions.

Artery-clogging lesions are a leading cause of heart attack and stroke and death worldwide.

Dr. Lisa Cassis and Dr. Alan Daugherty found the possible added benefit of the new drug in animal studies.

"In my many years of atherosclerosis research, this is one of the most striking effects I have seen on preventing the disease under experimental conditions," said Daugherty.

"This contributes to our knowledge of the underlying disease that causes heart attack and stroke," he added.

"Our data shows that renin inhibition is an effective approach to both lowering blood pressure and directly inhibiting atherosclerosis.

"It will be interesting to determine whether this approach is more effective than the two other commonly used classes of drugs in the angiotensin system; ACE inhibitors and ARBs," he said.

ANI