CCMB team finds unique gene mutations causing heart disease

Detected exclusively in Indian patients of cardiomyopathy

Mortality rate due to cardiovascular diseases is very high in India when compared to western countries. In severe cardiomyopathy, a cardiovascular disease where heart failures are common, the integral structure of the heart muscle changes, affecting blood-pumping capacity. This increases the risk of heart failure, leading to sudden cardiac deaths.

A team of scientists led by K. Thangaraj at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has found novel genetic mutations in -MYH7 or beta myosin heavy chain gene, responsible for causing dilated cardiomyopathy among Indians. This finding has been published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology - Open on January 14 this year.

-MYH7 is one of the major genes implicated in cardiac diseases globally. “However, not many genetic studies were carried out in Indian cardiomyopathy patients. Hence, we sequenced -MYH7gene of 137 dilated cardiomyopathy patients along with 167 ethnically matched healthy controls to identify the mutation(s), if any, that are associated with dilated cardiomyopathy in Indian patients”, said Mr Thangaraj, senior author of this study, and director of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics.