Professor Donald Singer, Head of Clinical Sciences at the University of Warwick Medical School, said: By revealing that blood vessels in CADASIL patients over-react to the hormone Angiotensin II the study offers insight into new approaches to prevent stroke and other brain disorders. This new knowledge will lead to more effective drugs to treat this debilitating disease that affects younger people and is associated with progressive dementia, migraine headaches and severe depression. Future studies in are needed of specific treatments aimed at blocking this key hormone.

Previous research into CADASIL has focused on changes in the brain. This new research applied micro-engineering methods to study very small arteries obtained from bikini area tissue samples donated by CASADIL patients and control subjects, to explore why blood vessels may behave abnormally in CADASIL.

In Europe and the United States stroke is the third leading cause of death and the primary cause of physical and cognitive difficulties.