DNA test at birth may reveal risk of stroke decades later

A DNA test in the first days of life might be able to predict those most likely to have a stroke decades later and allow those in danger to make the necessary lifestyle changes.

A DNA test in the first days of life might be able to predict those likely to have a stroke decades later, new Melbourne-led international research reveals.

Able to show those at three times the risk of suffering a stroke during their lives, the predictive genetic test would allow people in the greatest peril to alter their lifestyle and offset the danger.

By using a simple blood or saliva sample, scientists from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute with colleagues from Germany the UK have able to identify the roughly one in 400 people most likely to develop ischaemic stroke.

Results of the study found their genetic test is as good or better at predicting who will suffer a stroke than current methods, such as looking at a patient’s family history, blood pressure, body mass index and smoke habits.

Lead author Dr Michael Inouye of the Baker Institute said genomic sequencing has the huge advantage of being able to highlight a person’s risk from birth, though the challenge now centred on how it could be incorporated into clinical practice.

“We can’t make an individual-level prediction, but it is how to manage that one-in-400 who may be at three-fold risk of stroke later in life,” Dr Inouye said.

A DNA test in the first days of life might be able to predict those likely to have a stroke decades later.

“It is like throwing a dice — these people are at elevated risk and it might be prudent to minimise their conventional risk factors, like keeping the weight off.”

Combining 19 stroke and stroke-related genetic traits established in previous research, the investigators developed a “genetic risk score”, which they used to rate the DNA of 420,000 individuals in the UK Biobank.

At the same time, the Melbourne, Cambridge and Munich research used traditional methods such as medical and family history to rate each person’s risk of stroke.

Results of the study published online in the journal Nature Communications last week showed the DNA test could accurately predict which individuals belonged to the 0.25 per cent with the greatest risk of stroke.

With stroke being the world’s second most common cause of death and disability, having an early warning would help identify those needing extra attention to lower their blood pressure, body mass index, and efforts to avoid conditions such as diabetes long before the danger emerges.

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Dr Inouye said the researchers planned to combine the stroke genetic test with other heart disease markers for trials over the coming years, hoping to determine whether they could pinpoint those at need medication or lifestyle changes.

“We are going to put this stroke genetic risk predictor together with another one for coronary artery disease and try to cover the vast majority of the cardiovascular space and try to remake how we predict cardiovascular disease, how we prescribe statins,” he said.

“Hopefully it will have major public health impacts.

“It is looking promising, but it is still at that proof of concept stage.”

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