Americans die of heart or cardiovascular disease at an alarming rate. In fact, heart attacks, strokes, and related diseases will kill an estimated 610,000 Americans this year alone. Some medications help, but to better tackle this problem, researchers need to know exactly how the heart and blood vessels stay healthy in the first place.

Now, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have identified a protein, called GPR68, that senses blood flow and tells small blood vessels called arterioles when to dilate. The researchers believe medications that activate GPR68 could one day be useful to treat medical conditions, including ischemic stroke.

“It has been known for decades that blood vessels sense changes in blood flow rate, and this information is crucial in regulating blood vessel dilation and controlling vascular tone,” says Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, Scripps Research professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and senior author of the study published today in the journal Cell.

Indeed, flow-mediated dilation (FMD) is a noninvasive clinical test that informs doctors about the health of the vascular system. A compromised FMD is a precursor to a wide array of vascular diseases, such as hypertension and atherosclerosis.