ANTI-HYPERTENSIVE

Hypertension affects approximately 1.3 billion people globally and remains a leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Despite available treatments, challenges including resistant hypertension, poor adherence, and adverse effects persist. This study employed integrated computational and experimental approaches to design and synthesize novel imidazole-based antihypertensive compounds. Molecular docking using AutoDock Vina evaluated four imidazole derivatives against key hypertension-related targets: 6L88, 7BVQ, 5XPR, and 1O86. The compound 2-hexyl-4-phenyl-1H-imidazole exhibited superior binding with affinities of -6.3 to -7.9 (kcal/mol) to all the targets used. SwissADME analysis predicted favorable pharmacokinetics: high gastrointestinal absorption, optimal lipophilicity, and full Lipinski compliance. ProTox-3.0 toxicity profiling also showed acceptable safety with no predicted mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, immunotoxicity, or cytotoxicity. Based on these results, 2-hexyl-4-phenyl-1H-imidazole was synthesized via Debus-Radziszewski condensation with 77.3% yield and melting point of 184-186°C. Structure-activity analysis confirmed both hexyl and phenyl substituents are essential for optimal binding. This work demonstrates rational drug design principles in identifying promising antihypertensive leads and establishes a foundation for developing imidazolebased cardiovascular agents

Hypertension is diagnosed if the blood pressure is elevated on at least three different blood pressure measurements taken on two or more office visits. Blood pressure is an indication of
the amount of work that the heart has to do to pump blood around the body. Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular events and mortality. This research focused on the assessment of anti-hypertensive prescription pattern on blood pressure control among outpatients in a tertiary healthcare facility (University of Benin Teaching Hospital) in Edo state. A total of 254 questionnaires were administered, and 251 were returned, representing a response rate of 98.8%. The study adopted descriptive design. A convenient sampling technique. The results showed that the overall level of knowledge regarding anti-hypertensive prescription patterns among the respondents showed that the majority of the respondents (42.6%) had a fair level of knowledge, followed by those with poor knowledge (29.1%) and those with good knowledge (28.3%). Also, the overall compliance level of respondents to antihypertensive prescriptions showed that the majority of the respondents (46.6%) had a fair level of compliance, followed by those with poor compliance (28.7%) and those with good compliance (24.7%). Furthermore, the findings revealed that the factors influencing compliance to anti-hypertensive prescriptions were found to have a high influence on compliance. The most influential factor was financial constraints, followed by busy schedules, too many medications, lack of information about the disease, and side effects from medication.