Gene helps prevent heart attack, stroke - and may offer way to block effects of aging

Don't worry, nothing will be done to follow this up for decades, not in time to help your children or grandchildren. 

Gene helps prevent heart attack, stroke - and may offer way to block effects of aging

University of Virginia Health System News, 05/26/2016

A gene that scientific dogma insists is inactive in adults actually plays a vital role in preventing the underlying cause of most heart attacks and strokes, researchers at the School of Medicine have determined. The discovery opens a new avenue for battling those deadly conditions, and it raises the tantalizing prospect that doctors could use the gene to prevent or delay at least some of the effects of aging. “Finding a way to augment the expression of this gene in adult cells may have profound implications for promoting health and possibly reversing some of the detrimental effects with aging,” said researcher Gary K. Owens, PhD, director of UVA’s Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center. The researchers found that Oct4 controls the movement of smooth muscle cells into protective fibrous “caps” inside the plaques – caps that make the plaques less likely to rupture. The researchers also have provided evidence that the gene promotes many changes in gene expression that are beneficial in stabilizing the plaques. This is exciting, because studies suggest that it may be possible to develop drugs or other therapeutic agents that target the Oct4 pathway as a means to reduce the incidence of heart attacks or stroke. “Our findings have major implications regarding possible novel therapeutic approaches for promoting stabilization of atherosclerotic plaques,” said Olga A. Cherepanova, PhD, a senior research scientist in Owens’ lab. One surprising finding from UVA’s research: When the researchers blocked the effect of Oct4 in mice, they thought the atherosclerotic plaques might become smaller, because of the reduced number of smooth muscle cells inside. Instead, the plaques grew larger, less stable and more dangerous, stuffed with lipids, dead cells and other damaging components. The discovery was described in a paper published online by the journal Nature Medicine.

Scientists discover a new gene linked to stroke

Not sure how useful this is for the cost of getting gene testing.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scientists-discover-a-new-gene-linked-to-stroke/

Researchers have discovered a gene linked to the risk of stroke that could lead to a better understanding of the devastating condition and how to prevent and treat it. The gene may also have a connection to dementia and depression, they say.
The scientists, from Boston University School of Medicine and the University of Bordeaux, in France, analyzed data on close to 85,000 people that had been collected between 1948 and 2013. About 4,300 had had a stroke.
Then they conducted a genome-wide analysis of common genetic variants associated with stroke, said study investigator Dr. Sudha Seshadri, a professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine.
"We looked at millions of markers in each person and said how do all the people who have stroke differ from all the people who don't have stroke in terms of these millions of markers," Seshadri told CBS News.
They identified seven known genes associated with stroke and also a new one, called FOXF2, linked to risk for all types of stroke. Specifically, it appeared to increase the risk of having a stroke due to small vessel disease in the brain, a common type of stroke.
Seshadri said that for every stroke that is diagnosed due to apparent symptoms, there are five silent strokes -- what she calls "covert strokes" -- which show up on MRI.
"More than 80 percent of these undiagnosed strokes are due to small vessel disease," she said.
No previous study has identified a gene for this common type of stroke, she pointed out; most have looked at genes linked with atherosclerosis, how platelets function and clotting processes in the blood -- risk factors for other types of strokes.
In addition to stroke, Seshadri said small vessel disease is associated with dementia risk, walking problems, depression and glaucoma, so learning about FOXF2 may help shed light on those conditions, too.
The study appears in the journal Lancet Neurology.