title: Genetic susceptibility to cerebrovascular disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cerebrovascular disease (CeVD) remains a major cause of death and a leading cause of disability worldwide. CeVD is a complex and multifactorial disease caused by the interaction of vascular risk factors, environment, and genetic factors. In the present article, we discussed genetic susceptibility to CeVD, with particular emphasis on genetic studies of the associations between lipid traits and CeVD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Several animal and clinical studies clearly defined genetic predisposition to atherosclerosis and CeVD, and particularly to ischemic stroke. Recent evidence has shown that traditional vascular risk factors explain only a small proportion of variance in atherosclerosis, suggesting that additional nontraditional factors and novel genetic determinants impact CeVD. With the help of genome-wide technology, novel genetic variants have been implicated in CeVD and lipid metabolism such as those in protein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) gene in stroke and familial hypercholesterolemia. These studies are important as they contribute to our understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying CeVD and to developing more effective CeVD prevention strategies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CeVD is a complex and multifactorial disease and genetics likely plays an important role in its pathogenesis. The gene-gene and gene-environment interactions of genes involved in biology of vascular disease, including the lipid metabolism are important factors for individual susceptibility to CeVD. Accounting for individual variation in genes, environment and lifestyle will bring us closer to precision medicine, which is an emerging and recently introduced new approach for disease treatment and prevention in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: aDepartment of Neurology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA bDepartment of Systems Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata cIRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Della-Morte
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pacifici
authors.forename: Tatjana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rundek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000235:genetics*; D050171:Dyslipidemias / Q000235:genetics; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D050356:Lipid Metabolism