Research on the DNA of a large multi-generational family has provided a genetic clue that enabled scientists to pinpoint a gene that plays a role in mitral valve prolapse (MVP), a common cardiac disease that is the leading cause of heart valve surgery, according to a study presented today (Thursday, October 24) at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2013 meeting in Boston. MVP affects 2.5% of the population and typically presents symptoms in adulthood, often leading to heart failure. 15% of the patients inherit the disease, but the remaining 85% of MVP incidence is sporadic. The scientists who located the gene, named DCSH1 (from the dachsous1 gene in Drosophila), also determined how mutations in this gene disrupt the normal embryonic development of the mitral valve, one of the valves that controls blood flow in the heart. “This work provides insights into the pathways regulating valve growth and development,” said Susan Slaugenhaupt, Ph.D., Professor of Neurology in the Center for Human Genetic Research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School and one of the lead scientists in the collaborative group that conducted the research. “The results implicate a previously unrecognized paradigm in the development of long-term structural integrity in the mitral valve,” said Ronen Y. Durst, M.D., former member of Dr. Slaugenhaupt’s lab and now a senior cardiologist at Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. Dr. Durst presented the study this afternoon at ASHG 2013. The researchers’ first step was to link MVP to a region on human chromosome 11 in the DNA of the group of relatives with the heart disorder. By sequencing that DNA region in family members, the scientists were able to link mutations in DCSH1 to MVP.Login Or Register To Read Full Story