An international research team, including The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, has identified the link between the risk of ischemic stroke and the existance of a specific genetic variant. The discovery is believed to provide the new strategies to detect increased risk of stroke and development of new era of medicine.
Ischemic stroke is initiated with the blood blockage in the brain. Known that it takes roughly 90 percent of all strokes, it is one of the threats in America that 150,000 people experiences and takes third place in cause of death. After analysing 20,000 individuals' genomes, the variant was found to be not being involved with increased risk for non-ischemic stroke. According to data collected in the United States and Europe, 20 percent of whites and 10 percent of blacks were found to have at least one copy of the genetic variant and also the risk of ischemic stroke was increased by 30 percent by each copy.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the differences in the DNA sequences among individuals and these were used to detect the locations of disease genes in the genome. It was found that the genes that are suspected to be responsible for the disease are located on chromosome 12: NINJ2, involved in brain injust repair, and WNK1, involved in blood pressure control. By this discovery, it is expected to reduce the increased stroke risk by the gene can be accomplished by the development of medications.
The disease also caused by environmental factors, such as high blood pressure and smoking - the combination of genetic coding and environmental factors. Boerwinkle, the principal investigator for the largest study in the CHARGE Consortium, The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, claims that "even though the variant is common, it has a modest effect on stroke risk; thus, everyone, whether they carry this variant or not, should be aware of the risk factors for stroke, such as high blood pressure and smoking, and do everything they can to avoid those risk factors."
Additional research is still required since the particular gene mentioned above has not yet been fully proven to be the cause of the disease.
References:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090415172235.htm
pictures from:
http://64.37.123.165/pat/ais.htm
Ischemic stroke is initiated with the blood blockage in the brain. Known that it takes roughly 90 percent of all strokes, it is one of the threats in America that 150,000 people experiences and takes third place in cause of death. After analysing 20,000 individuals' genomes, the variant was found to be not being involved with increased risk for non-ischemic stroke. According to data collected in the United States and Europe, 20 percent of whites and 10 percent of blacks were found to have at least one copy of the genetic variant and also the risk of ischemic stroke was increased by 30 percent by each copy.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the differences in the DNA sequences among individuals and these were used to detect the locations of disease genes in the genome. It was found that the genes that are suspected to be responsible for the disease are located on chromosome 12: NINJ2, involved in brain injust repair, and WNK1, involved in blood pressure control. By this discovery, it is expected to reduce the increased stroke risk by the gene can be accomplished by the development of medications.
The disease also caused by environmental factors, such as high blood pressure and smoking - the combination of genetic coding and environmental factors. Boerwinkle, the principal investigator for the largest study in the CHARGE Consortium, The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, claims that "even though the variant is common, it has a modest effect on stroke risk; thus, everyone, whether they carry this variant or not, should be aware of the risk factors for stroke, such as high blood pressure and smoking, and do everything they can to avoid those risk factors."
Additional research is still required since the particular gene mentioned above has not yet been fully proven to be the cause of the disease.
References:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090415172235.htm
pictures from:
http://64.37.123.165/pat/ais.htm
Yujung Jeon 41885367
