Cavernous angioma, or cerebral cavernoma, a risk factor for neurological disorders, is linked to the composition of an individual’s intestinal microbiota.
- The cavernous angioma (CA) represents an anomaly of certain blood vessels of the brain.
- It can cause neurological disorders and is linked to the composition of an individual’s intestinal flora.
- In affected people, three types of intestinal bacteria are more present than in others.
One cerebral cavernoma, better known as cavernous angioma (CA), represents an abnormality of certain blood vessels in the brain. The latter are abnormally dilated and agglomerated in the form of a small sphere connected to vessels, delimited from the brain. It happens that this malformation causes neurological disorders such as headaches, epileptic seizures or vision disorders… However, the main risk of a cavernous angioma is that of bleeding. If the latter most often takes place inside, it can occur outside and lead to cerebral hemorrhage.
Now researchers have found that CAs are linked to the composition of an individual’s gut microbiota. The results of their study, published in the journal NatureCommunications, therefore provide new evidence of the importance of the gut microbiota in brain health.
For their study, scientists from the University of Chicago (United States) compared stool samples from 122 people with at least one CA with those from “healthy” subjects. For their analysis, they used advanced genomic analysis techniques. They noticed that patients with AC had more Gram-negative bacteria. The controls, on the contrary, had more Gram-positives. In addition, they had more of three specific types of gut bacteria than the others. These also seemed to produce more lipopolysaccharide molecules, which were found to cause CA formation in mice.
A permissive microbiota
The researchers then found that certain compositions of gut bacteria could identify aggressive and non-aggressive forms of the disease, as well as those with recent symptomatic bleeding.
Ultimately, their work showed how combining data on gut bacteria could help doctors better diagnose the severity of a brain disorder. According to them, these results therefore provide the first demonstration in humans of a “permissive microbiome” associated with the formation of neurovascular lesions in the brain.
Cerebral cavernoma affects both men and women and most often manifests between the ages of 20 and 40. The management varies according to the usual manifestations. In most cases, when there are no symptoms, no treatment is needed. Doctors only recommend avoiding sports that can lead to head injuries such as boxing or competitive sports and avoiding bleeding-promoting drugs when they are not absolutely necessary.
On the other hand, people whose cavernomas bleed regularly and who are at risk of epileptic seizures (anti-epileptic drugs can be given to patients suffering from seizures) can be operated on. However, surgery is not without risk. In the event of an inoperable or too small cavernoma, radiosurgery sessions may be considered. Rays pass through the tissues and destroy the cells concerned.
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