A gene known as patron of the Alzheimers exacerbates the effects of brain haemorrhage

published in Lancet Neurology

-the gene APOE E2 aggravates lobares brain hemorrhages, those that affect the brain’s cortex

Barcelona, August of 2011- Mar Hospital experts have participated in an international and multicenter study has confirmed a new genetic marker linked to brain hemorrhages and published in Lancet Neurology.

The most reliable forecast of the sequelae caused by cerebral hemorrhage and mortality is extravasated blood volume and size of secondary hematoma. Researchers of the Hospital del Mar and the research Neurovascular of the programme of research on inflammation and disorders cardiovascular of the IMIM-Hospital del Mar of Barcelona discussed the extension of the bleeding and its location in 846 patients affected by lobar hemorrhage (circumscribed to the cerebral cortex and the subcortical areas) and in 1.176 affected by a bleeding in deeper brain regionsall older than 55 years, and analyzed the APOE genotype to find out what variants of the gene (allele) were carriers.

Genetic analyses have shown that patients affected by lobar hemorrhage APOE E2 variant carriers suffer, on average, major bleeding and therefore have an increased risk of death or serious disability. On the other hand, the APOE E4 variant carriers have no any negative relationship with the extent of the cerebral hemorrhage. “The clinical applicability of this finding is limited by the fact that the brain hemorrhage does not have a specific medical treatment,” explains Dr. Jaume Roquer, Chief of the service of Neurology and head of the Group of research in neurology. know if a patient is or no bearer of APOE E2 would be an important value Outlook and could be one “useful information for planning and designing clinical trials of new treatments”, continues Roquer. However, and according to the same Dr. Roquer, a possible closest applicability in time could be the pre-trial, in other words, knowing that a particular genetic profile worsens the prognosis of lobares bleeding “could in the future help to decision making in patients with a risk assessment / tight benefit”, in which arose the chronic with anticoagulants or antiplatelet treatment “, explains Dr. Roquer.

“Raised the hypothesis that the gene APOE E2, in addition to increasing the abnormal deposition of beta-amyloid protein in the blood vessels of the brain, is that these glasses are more damaged and are more vulnerable. Therefore, in carriers of the gene APOE E2, occurs a hemorrhage in the vicinity of an area with vessels with beta-amyloid deposits, these vessels may break more easily, thus exacerbating the magnitude of the initial bleeding.

Cerebral hemorrhage spontaneous is a variant of the accident stroke (or stroke) that mainly affects older persons. Despite advances in the field of neurological intensive care, nearly three quarters of those affected risk to die or suffer a serious disability. It is a neurological emergency requiring urgent new preventive and acute treatments.
A previous study had pointed out the link of the gene APOE E2 and APOE E4 with the risk of lobular, probably through angiopathy cerebral hemorrhage cerebral amyloid, a disorder responsible for 12% and 34% of cases of bleeding in the brain in elderly