A team of 伊人直播 researchers has been granted $4.79 million over four years to better understand how genetic and environmental factors like diet and exercise interact to affect stroke risk and stroke outcome.
There are 94 genetic variants associated with stroke, but little is known about how they actually affect a person’s risk of having a stroke.
With the new funding from , and others, the team will use high-tech “multiomics” methods to examine the DNA (genomics), RNA (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics) and metabolism (metabolomics) in biobanked blood samples from 3,200 Canadian stroke patients. They will then cross-reference those results with clinical and other records to search for patterns using machine learning.
The goal is to identify biomarkers — or molecular indicators — that could lead to better stroke prevention and risk assessment tools, and ultimately the discovery of precision treatments that target the newfound risk factors.
“Stroke’s a complex disease and there’s not one clear gene that causes stroke, so taking a multiomics approach where you integrate genetics with other biological markers to understand that complexity is a very useful approach,” says stroke neurologist and co-lead , who is also .
“Genetic mutations increase your susceptibility to a disease, but there’s a huge component of the environment that also plays a role,” explains co-lead , Distinguished University Professor with appointments in computing science, biological sciences and laboratory medicine, and .
“Someone might have the genetic propensity for a stroke but they exercise regularly, maintain a good weight, a good diet, and that environment has an impact on whether they have a stroke,” says Wishart. “That’s why metabolites and proteins will also be measured.
“It’s that interplay between genes and environment that we’re trying to tease apart.”
Jickling says speedy diagnosis is key with stroke because many of the medications to treat it must be taken within a few hours of the stroke occurring.
“Identifying stroke is challenging, so we’re hopeful part of this work will be developing an omic marker to help clinicians diagnose stroke better and faster to guide treatment,” Jickling says.
“Also, some of our treatments don’t always work. You can be on aspirin or a blood thinner and still have a stroke. We’re hopeful that we can identify new targets to better prevent strokes.”
A “gold mine” of data
that nearly 900,000 Canadian adults have experienced a stroke, which happens when blood stops flowing to a part of the brain, damaging the brain cells. It’s the fifth leading cause of death and a major cause of disability, costing $3.6 billion a year in hospital care, rehabilitation and decreased productivity.
The Canada-wide biobank of stroke patients’ samples, housed at the 伊人直播, aims to increase diversity in the genetic understanding of stroke, reflecting the population of Canada. It contains detailed clinical information about the patients, including suspected causes of stroke, outcome and complications. All of this will make the results more broadly applicable, Jickling says.
Two thousand samples have already been taken, and 1,200 more patients will be recruited for the study. A patient advisory group will help to direct the research questions.
The research team, which will include undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students, will use genetic sequencing and mass spectrometry to examine the blood samples and then use sophisticated bioinformatics tools to analyze what they find.
Wishart points out that similar methods of analysis of the have recently uncovered predictors for Parkinson’s disease, illuminated how diabetes affects the structure of the heart and pinpointed genes that protect against obesity.
“We’re at that tipping point where the technology is getting cheap enough, comprehensive enough, robust and reproducible enough so that it is time to invest in these biobanks,” says Wishart, who likens biobanks to a “gold mine” of data. “It’s like clinical chemistry on steroids.”
“This should be viewed as a starting point,” points out Jickling. “This is a huge repository of information that can be explored for years.”
Wishart heads the highly cited and established , a world leader in metabolomics research. He is also a member of the (WCHRI). Jickling is a world leader in stroke biomarkers, and a member of both WCHRI and the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute.
The research project is funded by Genome Canada and Genome Alberta, with support from , the , the , the , , The Metabolomics Innovation Centre and the .
