Punnett's Square: cervical artery dissection

Showing posts with label cervical artery dissection. Show all posts

Friday, November 28, 2014

Gene Found to Help Combat Strokes

Researchers from University of London, along with researchers from the United States and Europe, found a gene known as PHACTR1. This gene has been found to reduce cervical artery dissection, which is a tear in an artery that leads to the brain. Cervical artery dissection is one of the leading causes of strokes in young and middle-aged adults. This disease can also lead to compression of adjacent nerves and to blood clotting, hence the strokes. Individuals with the PHACTR1 gene have reduced risk from not only cervical artery dissection, but from migraines and heart attacks.

One of the researchers, Professor Pankaj Sharma, believes the discovery of this gene is a very important breakthrough. Not just due to finding this gene, but because the study of this particular area of the genome provides a better understanding of how it affects the vascular system. This discovery can lead to new treatments for strokes, in addition to cervical artery dissection. The study of the genome around PHACTR1 could lead to more knowledge and new treatments of other vascular, heart, and brain diseases.

I find it extremely fascinating how many discoveries are being made in such a short amount of time. The scientist are constantly finding new genes or linking old genes to different diseases. I think if we keep studying the genome we will be able to handle old disease and new diseases as they pop up. If not, we will at the very least have a good understanding of the disease and how to go about dealing with it. Genome studying can only be good.

Article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/286004.php

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Gene Linked to Reduced Stroke Risk

Researchers recently discovered a gene that helps prevent one of the major causes of stroke. This discovery could possible lead to new treatments for young and middle aged adults. Researchers from the University of London and an international team have discovered a variant of the PHACTR1. Individuals with this variant are known to have a reduced risk of cervical artery dissection caused by a tear in an artery leading to the brain.

This discovery will lead to new treatment and prevention options for adults with diseases that increase the risk of strokes. This same variant may also be linked to a reduced risk for migraines and heart attacks. These findings have help scientists have a greater understanding of how genomes related to the vascular systems. This means this discovery could also help with treatment and prevention for many disabling vascular conditions. More research will be conducted to identify these specific genes and genomes in hopes to find the causes of strokes and heart disease. This would be an incredible medical breakthrough and hopefully save many lives in the future.

Original Article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/286004.php

Related Article: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28117422

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Decreased Risk for Stroke with Gene Variant

For individuals who are young and middle-aged adults, cervical artery dissection exists as one of the major causes of stroke. Cervical artery dissection describes a condition where one of the arteries traveling through the neck and to the brain experiences a tear in the lining. This results in increased risk for blood clotting as well as compression of nearby nerves and blood vessels, which reduces blood flow to the brain. This decreased blood flow to the brain significantly increases the risk for an individual to experience brain damage or even a stroke, which can lead to significant mental impairment or death.

Researchers from University of London’s Royal Holloway in combination with a team of researchers spanning in geographic location from across Europe and the United States, have made a genetic discovery that explains a reduced risk in certain individuals for the aforementioned major cause of stroke. A large study was executed, including 1,400 patients with cervical artery dissection and 14,400 individuals who do not have this condition. The entire genomes of all those involved in the study were screened to determine if differences existed that would explain increased or decreased risk for cervical artery dissection. The researchers found that those with a particular gene variant, PHACTR1, had a decreased risk for being afflicted with cervical artery dissection. The gene variant has also been linked with defense against migraines and heart attack risk.

Researchers have stated that this finding will be essential in helping to further understand the impact of this particular portion of the genetic code on characteristics of blood vessel formation and maintenance in the body. They hope that such information will result in treatments and methods of prevention for conditions related to the body’s vasculature, such as stroke. They hope to do further related investigation of the genome to determine other genetic variations that may be linked to increased or decreased risk for stroke.

I find this article and the discovery it details to be very interesting. Strokes have the capability to produce such horrible brain damage and even death, so any information to further understand mechanisms that increase the likelihood of experiencing a stroke is of great value. Such information can be used for the purposes of beneficial prevention measures and treatments. It is wonderful that this study of genome screening brought light to this one particular gene variant, which decreases risk of cervical artery dissection. Hopefully, other similar findings will be made regarding other risk factors for stroke using this methodology.

Link to Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141125074753.htm