Around five genes behind stroke identified: study

Dr Pankaj Sharma of Imperial College,who was in Lucknow to participate in the Annual Conference of Indian Society of Human Genetics held at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science,presented the research on Sunday.

“We knew through epidemiological study that stroke has hereditary characteristics and have been able to identify at least five genes responsible for stroke in a patient,” said Dr Sharma.

Of the five,three of the genes are responsible for blood clotting while one maintains the blood pressure and other helps in metabolism in the cells. “The study conducted in US found that more than 32,000 patients of stroke have one of these five genes variant in them and it is expected that around 20 per cent of the population has this variation,” said Dr Sharma.

“Stroke is a lifestyle disease but if a person has a variation of these genes,the chances of this person getting stroke increases manifold. On the other hand,for those who do not have these variations,even a bad lifestyle will not lead to stroke. So a gene risk profiling can help prevent stroke,” he added.

Imperial College has collaborated with the All India Institute of Medical Science to find the prevalence of these genetic variations in the Indian population. “According to WHO,as the life expectancy in Indian population is increasing,it is expected that there will be as many as 15 million stroke patients in India by 2050,” said Dr Sharma.

“We need 3,000 patients for conducting the study in India and we are also looking forward to a tie up with SGPGI as well to meet the requirement,” added Dr Sharma.