Approved Research

Professor Guangrui Huang

Lay summary

The purpose of this study is to study the relationship between inflammation level, brain structure and heart structure in patients with cerebral and cardiovascular diseases (CCVDs). In addition, we want to explore the mechanism of gene regulation with relevance to cerebral disease and heart structure change. Previous studies have proved the relationship between inflammation with CCVDs such as stroke, depression, Alzheimer's disease, myocardial infarction, etc. Systemic inflammation is associated with regional brain structural alterations, such as gray matter volume, hippocampus.

We would enroll the participants diagnosed as CCVDs obtained from the UK Biobank. The information of participants include basic information, clinical data, genomic data, and neuroimaging and cardiogram data. Furthermore, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data of brain and heart were obtained from public database such as Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database.

This study will use multistage linked analyses, including Genome wide association study (GWAS), Mendelian randomization (MR), weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA), and connectivity analyses, which were used to identify mechanisms related to systemic inflammatory states affecting structural changes in the brain in patients with CCVDs.

In conclusion, this study intends to identify the regional brain structural alterations or heart structures alterations related to the systemic inflammation in patients with CCVDs such as stroke, depression, Alzheimer's disease, myocardial infarction, etc, which provides a more comprehensive analysis of the pathogenesis of inflammation in patients with CCVDs.

The project is expected to take 24 months to complete.