Study nails genetic region linked to strokes in Indians

A genetic region previously known to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in African Americans, has been linked to an increased risk of stroke. Also, a new study published in the journal Nature suggests, the frequency of this genetic region called COBL is higher in persons suffering from the neurological disease in south Asians, including Indian patients.

Durgesh Nandan Jha
  • Updated On Oct 4, 2022 at 05:31 AM IST
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NEW DELHI: A genetic region previously known to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in African Americans, has been linked to an increased risk of stroke. Also, a new study published in the journal Nature suggests, the frequency of this genetic region called COBL is higher in persons suffering from the neurological disease in south Asians, including Indian patients.

According to Dr Kameshwar Prasad, former head of neurology at AIIMS, who is currently director of Rajendra Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, the finding suggests that the presence of COBL increases risk of stroke in south Asians. “Similar studies in other ethnic groups like Europeans, Africans, etc did not confirm its role in these ethnic groups,” Dr Prasad said. He was the lead researcher from India in the Nature study which involved approximately two million stroke patients and two million individuals who were free from stroke. The individuals studied were from five different ancestries namely European, Africans, Hispanics, East Asians and south Asians.

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Dr Prasad said their team contributed data of 4,088 individuals 1,609 stroke cases and 2,479 controls which were part of the south Asian group. “This study led to identification of 89 genetic regions of which 61 were novel regions identified for the first time for stroke while 28 were confirmation of signals that were identified by previous studies,” he added.

The discovery of such genetic regions may pave the way to more targeted discovery of drugs likely to be more effective in specific populations like south Asians. It can also be used to predict stroke and help develop targeted therapy for the disease, the neurologist said.

In 2019, the estimated number of incident cases of stroke in India was 1.29 million, and the number of deaths due to stroke was 6,99,000. The treatments available so far are mechanical removal or chemical dissolution of clots.

Prevention is also based on the ‘one size fits all’ principle. “Discovery of genes responsible for stroke in our population will allow precise identification of people at high risk, and therapy targeted to neutralise the gene may allow targeted prevention and specific treatment,” Dr Prasad explained.
  • Published On Oct 4, 2022 at 05:31 AM IST
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