Brain Aneurysms Can Be Treated With The Help Of A Cancer Drug
Brain Aneurysms are caused when there is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in its wall. When blood flows through the weakened vessel, the pressure causes the area to bulge outwards and cause problems in the surrounding regions. They commonly occur in the abdominal aorta and the brain. Aneurysms can affect any number of people, ranging from 1 in 100 to 1 in 20. Since its treatment is difficult, surgery is usually avoided, but in select cases, it becomes a necessity. In a notable research study, a class of cancer-treatment drugs can be used to treat patients with brain aneurysms.
Scientists from the University of Sussex worked in a collaboration with researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, USA. The treatment involves the usage of ‘Receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors’; which is a class of drug currently being used to treat cancer. A number of complex DNA sequencing techniques were implemented, and a new genetic basis of a brain aneurysm form was identified. Manuel Ferreira states that the mutations in the aforementioned gene were completely different from the ones that were previously detected in brain aneurysms.
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Further reports state that multiple disease-associated mutations in PDGFRB (Platelet Derived Growth Factor Receptor Beta) was the major reason for a major abnormality in the protein that was encoded in the receptor. PDGFRB is a Protein Coding gene. Because of the abnormality, the activity of the protein is always set to “hyper-active”, which means that the gene associated with the protein is always “turned on”. As per the lead professor in the study, this discovery depicts how lab-derived observations can be upscaled to a clinical level, which can then be used to make revolutionary discoveries pertaining to healthcare and treatments.
