NPPA and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Thus, it is reasonable to speculate that lower circulating concentrations of BNP and ANP, caused by overweight and obesity [4], [7,15,16,35], in the long-run could increase blood pressure and eventually cause hypertension through a relative deficiency of these peptides [5,6], resulting in diminished vasodilation and natriuresis.