A study, on mice and patient brain tissues, sheds light on a rare disease and suggests a treatment based on routinely used blood-thinning drugs. Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are abnormal groups of tightly packed small blood vessels in the brain, which can cause serious problems, such as epileptic attacks, neurological problems and strokes. The scientists examined mice with a mutation that can result in blood vessel lesions similar to the ones in humans with CCM. “Both in the mice and in the tissue samples, we saw that blood clots had formed in the malformed blood vessels,”, said Peetra Magnusson, of Uppsala University, Sweden, who led the study.

They therefore concluded that patients suffering from CCM could greatly benefit from antithrombotic drugs to break down the clots. The other institutions involved in the study were Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark, EARA member the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Finland, and the IFOM institute, Italy.

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