A mutation has been found in a rare form of brain aneurysm that might be treated with a drug already approved for cancer therapy.
The finding suggests that other, more common, forms of aneurysms may be caused by yet undiscovered mutations. These might also be treated with medication instead of high-risk surgical interventions.
The study was reported in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
“Right now, we are largely limited to surgical procedures such as craniotomy to clip or repair aneurysms or on endovascular treatments to place stents and coils,” said Dr. Manuel Ferreira, UW Medicine’s chief of neurological surgery, who led the research project. “Our findings suggest that medications, in this case the well-tolerated cancer drug sunitinib, may be able to treat some of these aneurysms.” aneurysms occur when the blood vessel wall weakens. These weakened vessel walls bulge and often burst. Some ruptures result in catastrophic bleeding, particularly when they are located in the brain. A few aneurysms are caused by inherited genetic disorders, said Ferreira, but these disorders are relatively rare. In most cases, the cause of an aneurysm is unknown. Such sporadic aneurysms have been thought to result from smoking, high blood pressure or other factors that damage to the vessel wall.
