Immune response after ruptured brain aneurysms Choi to study epigenetic differences linked to poor outcomes after subarachnoid hemorrhage
The rupture of an aneurysm in the brain triggers an immune response that activates white blood cells to produce specific proteins. Overproduction of the protein LRG1 is associated with complications after subarachnoid hemorrhage including more cerebral edema and worse neurological outcomes, according to research led by H. Alex Choi, MD, and Seong Kyu “Bosco” Yang, MD.
Choi and Yang will use a new $20,000 pilot grant from the UTHealth Houston Cizik Nursing Research Institute (CNRI) to learn more about the causes of LRG1 overproduction and other proteins linked to severe after-effects of brain injury in his study “Leukocyte DNA Methylation as a Determinant of LRG1 Production and Cerebral Edema Severity after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.”
“After an aneurysm ruptures, there is an intense immune reaction to blood being where it’s not supposed to be,” explained Choi, a professor and director of neurocritical care in the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. “Some patients have a robust LRG 1 response, and that response is associated with more swelling and other complications.”
His team will use the CNRI’s Biobehavioral Health Biomarker Discovery Service Center, a lab housed within Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, to process 60 blood samples from patients who suffered ruptured aneurysms. The samples were collected as part of Choi’s ongoing study, “Discovery of Plasma Biomarkers of Delayed Cerebral Ischemia after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage,” which is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health.
The wide-spectrum CNRI study will look at differences in gene expression, or epigenetics, related to LRG1 and attempt to identify additional proteins associated with damaging immune responses after an aneurysm in the brain ruptures. Choi’s team also wants to find out how environmental factors or health history might affect epigenetics in people whose white blood cells overproduce LRG1.
“If we can nail down what causes higher levels of LRG1, we can target overproduction and improve outcomes,” Choi said.
His team will use the findings from the pilot grant to apply for NIH funding and potentially expand the scope of research into epigenetic responses among this patient population.
Biobehavioral Health Biomarker Discovery Center provides a full range of services from specimen sample collection, preservation, and storage to assay development for researchers at all UTHealth Houston schools. It also holds a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Certificate of Waiver from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide a variety of tests for clinical purposes.
