In people with hypertension, the renal nerves (which communicate information from the kidney to the brain) are hyperactive. This hyperactivity raises blood pressure, which in turn contributes to heart, kidney, and blood vessel damage.
There is an investigational method for high blood pressure designed to target the nerves in the renal arteries. The Symplicity HTN-3 study aims to learn whether treating blood pressure by targeting nerves in the renal arteries is more effective than medications alone for patients with resistant high blood pressure.