CADASIL Disease Discovery

Small vessel diseases are conditions characterized by the narrowing of small arteries leading to an imbalance of blood supply upon demand. This results in a progressive chronic hypoperfusion with detrimental outcomes for the affected organ system and for the patient. Recent advances in genetic evaluation have identified several genetic variants causing cerebrovascular small vessel diseases. These diseases have common clinical presentation including recurrent strokes, progressive white matter degeneration, and debilitating dementia. The link between these pathologies is defects in the tunica media of arteries, which is composed mainly of vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs).

CADASIL (cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarct and leukoencephalopathy) is caused by mutations in NOTCH3. The disease is of slow onset, with initial clinical manifestations in the third and fourth decade of life, but progressive and fatal. Predominant clinical features include migraine with aura (atypical or isolated), strokes, memory loss, and multiple psychiatric symptoms including dementia. Currently, CADASIL is considered the most common hereditary subcortical vascular dementia, however, treatments are palliative, and there is little prospect of future therapies to directly address causation and block progression. We propose to characterize the etiology and natural history of CADASIL subjects through comprehensive clinical and molecular characterizations. Subjects will be seen at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) once a year for a period of 2 years (total of 3 visits).

• INCLUSION CRITERIA:
• Male or female, age 18 to 100 years (inclusive).
• Established diagnosis of CADASIL, as determined by genetic testing, in early stages of disease (0-5 years after diagnosis) with mild or no cognitive impairment.
• Willing and able to comply with study requirements.

Exclusion criteria

• Subjects unable to give informed consent without requirement for a legally authorized representative
• Subjects who decline to provide samples for blood and/or tissue studies, or who do not consent to have samples stored for future research
• Pregnant women are excluded due to study procedures (pregnancy test will be done in females of childbearing age under other NHLBI-approved protocols the subject is consented to, up to 48 hours prior to consenting to this protocol).
• Subjects unable to undergo an MRI scan

• Subjects who have internal non-MRI compatible metals (i.e. cardiac pacemaker, brain stimulator, shrapnel, surgical metal, clips in the brain or on blood vessels, cochlear implants, artificial heart valves or metal fragments in the eye) as these rendering an MRI unsafe
• Subjects with ferromagnetic dental bridges or crowns (exclusion only for 7.0T)
• Subjects unable to remain supine for the expected length of the MRI (i.e. up to 1 hour)
• Subjects with uncontrolled head movements
• Subjects who are claustrophobic for the expected length of the MRI (i.e. up to 1 hour) and claustrophobia cannot be controlled with anti-anxiety medication.
• Subjects whose scans or examinations show unexpected brain conditions.
• Subjects who do not speak English