Brain aneurysms ’caused by genetics’

Gene variations are linked to brain aneurysms, new research published today has claimed.

A team of London scientists, revealing their findings in the latest edition of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, found that aneurysms were frequently prompted by inflammation of arteries in the brain, causing them to rupture.

By discovering that two different types of gene variations were responsible for the release of a chemical causing the inflammation, the scientists were able to establish a link between the interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene and brain aneurysms.

“In this study, we showed that the IL-6 2174C allele and IL-6 2572C allele [the two gene variants] were associated with intracranial aneurismal disease,” the report concluded.

“Whether this association is with the development, progression or rupture of such aneurysms, or represents survivor bias, is the subject of ongoing research.”

Inflammation and the presence of the chemical causing it became clear when the scientists noticed that the IL-6 gene variants were 14 times more prevalent among patients with aneurysms than in those without.

Brain aneurysms can affect up to eight per cent of the population, occurring when an artery wall is weakened at a stress point.

Medical figures published in the US show that only one fifth of those suffering from cerebral aneurysms are likely to be alive and well one year after the aneurysm takes place.

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