Millions of people under 40 across world-wide suffer without knowing from early coronary artery disease, which in many cases leads to massive heart attacks in later life. To relief of these people, an Indian origin researcher, Svati Shah of Duke University Medical School in North Carlolina has recently announced the identification of a gene or marker which is associated with early hardening of the arteries. Shah, the co-author of this study with her colleagues believe they have pinpointed the gene that can help in prediciting advance informations of the risk.
They truly believe that this could lead to a test to identify the latent threat of hardened arteries so that patients could be given dietary advices and other treatments before too much damage is done. These young patients are a vulnerable population on whom coronary artery disease has a significant long-term impact, but they are particularly hard to identify and subsequently therefore to initiate preventive therapies will be immensely benefitted if this gene is completely tapped.
So this and other genetic findings may help in future to identify these patients prior to development of coronary artery disease or their first heart attack. Known as NPY, this gene is one of the most plentiful and important proteins in the body & is linked to the control of appetite and feeding behavior, among other things. The current research found evidence for six related variations in the NPY gene that show evidence of transmission from generation to generation.
The study also found a strong link between the mutant gene and those with actual heart disease or ancestral history of the disease. The concept is that even small changes over time can promote hardening of the arteries at a very young age. Hence this discovery will definitely help the millions of young people who are probable to suffer even without knowing that coronary artery disease is going to grip them sooner or later.