Tea is the most popular beverage after water. Since it’s discovery by the Chinese emperor Shen Nong way back in 2737 BC, Tea was refreshing the mankind by providing many health and functional properties. By the way, as Laboratory Equipment had reported, a new study conducted at the University of California, Irvine claims that compounds in both black and green tea relax blood vessels by activating ion channel proteins in the blood vessel wall. This discovery assists explaining the antihypertensive properties of tea and may lead to the design of new blood pressure-lowering medications.

Published in Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry, the discovery was made by the laboratory of Geoffrey Abbott, a professor at the UCI School of Medicine. Kaitlyn Redford, a graduate student in the Abbott Lab, was first author of the study titled, “KCNQ5 potassium channel activation underlies vasodilation by tea.”

Prof. Abbott claimed that two catechin-type flavonoid compounds (epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin-3-gallate) available in tea, each activate a specific type of ion channel protein called KCNQ5, that allows potassium ions to diffuse out of cells to minimize cellular excitability. As KCNQ5 is available in the smooth muscle that lines blood vessels, its activation by tea catechins was also predicted to relax blood vessels—a prediction confirmed by collaborators at the University of Copenhagen.

The researchers in the present study found that when black tea was directly applied to cells containing the KCNQ5 channel, the addition of milk prevented the beneficial KCNQ5-activating effects of tea. So “theaflavins available in pure black tea may also activates KCNQ5” (haven’t mentioned in the study)

One third of the world’s adult population have hypertension, and this condition is considered as the main risk factor for global cardiovascular disease and premature mortality. Earlier studies demonstrated that consumption of tea can minimize blood pressure by a small but consistent amount, and catechins were previously found to contribute to this property.

In addition to its role in controlling vascular tone, KCNQ5 is expressed in various parts of the brain, where it regulates electrical activity and signaling between neurons. Pathogenic KCNQ5 gene variants exist that impair its channel function and in doing so cause epileptic encephalopathy, a developmental disorder that is severely debilitating and causes frequent seizures. Because catechins can cross the blood-brain barrier, discovery of their ability to activate KCNQ5 may suggest a future mechanism to fix broken KCNQ5 channels to ameliorate brain excitability disorders stemming from their dysfunction.

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References

1. Main Source: https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/573999-New-Discovery-Explains-Antihypertensive-Properties-of-Tea/
2. Original Research Paper: https://www.cellphysiolbiochem.com/Articles/000337/