Transcriptome analysis of Aneurysm

Intracranial aneurysm (IA) is a condition that manifests with balloon or sac like dilation of blood vessel inside brain with prevalence ranging from 1-6% in general population. Our experience in the management and clinical research suggests that there exists following three clinical subsets of patients with Intracranial Aneurysm: 1) Patients with Unruptured IA (mostly incidental aneurysm), 2) Patients with Ruptured IA and 3) Patients with Ruptured IA who despite management develop cerebral vasospasm. Rupture of IA is devastating neurological condition that leads to aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). It is a medical emergency which is responsible for about 85% of all subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and 5% of stroke cases with survival rate is only about 50-60%. Severe disabilities are commonly seen in survivors which reduce their quality of life. Cerebral vasospasm (CV) is the major cause of delayed neurological deterioration which accounts for high mortality and morbidity in patients who survive the early phase of aSAH. Approximately 20-30% of the patients with aSAH develop clinically symptomatic CV during the course of treatment. We hypothesize that there exists a variation in gene expression which accounts for different clinical manifestations and outcomes in patients with intracranial aneurysm. In this study we have employed high-throughput transcriptome profiling of these three clinical subsets of patients with IA along with unmatched control (intracranial blood vessels) to elucidate the molecular signatures associated with aneurysm formation and its pathological progression.Overall study design: To identify the differentially expressed genes which are associated with development and pathological progression of intracranial aneurysm, we performed the RNA sequencing of 15 IA tissue samples (4 unruptured IA, 6 ruptured IA without vasospasm and 5 RIA with vasospasm) and 5 control tissue samples (intracranial blood vessels).