Cancer drug can be used to treat cerebral aneurysm

A team of specialists from the Washington University Medical School in Seattle and the University of Sussex seems to have found a safer and more effective alternative to surgery for cerebral aneurysm – the use of a class of certain drugs, receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors that are currently used to treat various types of cancer.

Using sophisticated DNA sequencing technologies of the latest generation, the scientists have identified a new genetic basis for the development of a certain type of brain aneurysm, PDGFRB mutation. PDGFRB mutations cause a specific abnormality in the protein encoded by this gene, as a result of which such protein is overexpressed and causes the development of aneurysm. Such disorders can be counteracted with the help of drugs – receptor tyrosine kinases inhibitors.

SOURCE: WORLD PHARMA NEWS