Gene therapy for intracranial aneurysms: systemic review.

Abstract

Treatment of intracranial aneurysms is currently limited to invasive surgical and endovascular modalities, and some aneurysms are not treatable with these methods. Identification and targeting of specific molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of aneurysms may improve outcomes. Low frequency somatic variants found in cancer related genes have been linked to intracranial aneurysm development. In particular, mutations in the <i>PDGFRB</i> gene lead to constitutively activated ERK and nuclear factor κB signaling pathways, which can be targeted with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. In this review, we describe how low frequency somatic variants in oncogenic and other genes affect the pathogenesis of aneurysm development, with a focus on gene therapy applications, such as endovascular in situ delivery of chemotherapeutics.