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Project

Molecular exploration of a new aortopathy syndrome with strong potential to inform the pathogenesis and treatment of heritable thoracic aortic aneurysm.

Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) is an abnormal widening of the thoracic aorta caused by blood vessel wall weakness. TAAs entail a high risk for aortic rupture or dissection, commonly leading to sudden death. This dramatic event may leave family members of the deceased terrified and oblivious. To date, genetic defects in >30 genes have been linked with TAA, providing a molecular cause for about 30% of patients. Their identification and functional characterization have been key in acquiring our current pathomechanistic aortopathy knowledge. Yet, the genetic and mechanistic picture for TAA is far from complete, hampering identification of predictive markers for aneurysm formation and development of therapies capable of stopping or reversing aneurysm formation. In search for novel TAA genes, we most recently identified recessive truncating mutations in IPO8 as a novel cause of syndromic TAA. This project builds on this exciting finding. More specifically, we aim to significantly improve our current TAA pathomechanistic insight and future TAA patient management by (1) aortic phenotyping and functional characterization of an Ipo8 null mouse line, (2) validation of the mouse findings in the human context using patient- and control-derived iPSC-VSMCs, and (3) identifying putative drug compounds for IPO8-related aortopathy using a cell-based matrix metalloproteinase inhibition assay.
Date:1 Jan 2021 →  Today
Keywords:MOUSE MODELS, GENETIC DISEASE
Disciplines:Compound screening, Vascular diseases, Genetics, Pathophysiology