Research Project
Lipidomics in Acute Ischemic Stroke: Relationship to Symptoms and Outcomes
Transfer application: Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is the leading cause of long-term disability in the US, and about 50% of AIS survivors exhibit fatigue and depressive symptoms, cognitive deficits, and poorer functional and health-related quality of life outcomes. The proposed project will examine biological mechanisms associated with symptoms and outcomes in AIS survivors.
- Principal Investigator
- Martha, Sarah R.
- Start Date
- 2021-07-30
- End Date
- 2024-06-30
- Funding Source
- National Institute of Nursing Research
Abstract
The purpose of this K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Career Development Award is to provide the necessary mentorship, knowledge, and training to Dr. Sarah Martha, an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing. The long-term goal of Dr. Martha is to independently develop and lead an extramurally-funded program of research focused on targeted interventions to improve symptoms and outcomes in acute ischemic stroke survivors. Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is the leading cause of severe longterm disability in the US. AIS is characterized by the disruption of cerebral blood flow due to large arterial occlusion, caused by a cerebral thrombus. Half of AIS survivors exhibit fatigue and depressive symptoms, cognitive deficits, and poorer functional and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes. Recent advances in omics methodology enables lipidomic profiling, which may provide knowledge of the underlying pathology of AIS and its associated symptoms and outcomes. This proposed research will address a gap in knowledge in the relationship between lipid biomarkers, development of symptoms and outcomes in the 6 months following AIS and the role of reperfusion intervention. This career development award will support the applicants training and research goals through the provision of mentorship, coursework, laboratory training, and other activities directly relevant to the content areas of advanced statistical methods for longitudinal clinical research, analysis of lipidomic biomarkers, AIS pathology, clinical trial design, and career development. The project proposed in this application will examine how and when lipidomic signatures, symptoms, functional and HRQOL outcomes change after AIS, and what influence, if any, reperfusion interventions have on these changes. The applicant proposes a prospective cohort (2 groups, n=52/each), longitudinal study involving participants following AIS. The research project proposed in the application will analyze arterial and peripheral plasma lipid biomarkers that may provide lipidomic signatures useful in identifying predictive symptoms and cognitive, functional, and HRQOL outcomes. Specifically, the proposal aims are to: 1) Compare symptoms (fatigue and depressive), cognitive, functional, and HRQOL outcomes over 6 months between AIS patients who did and did not receive reperfusion intervention; 2) Compare peripheral plasma lipid levels over 6 months between AIS patients who did and did not receive reperfusion intervention; 3) Examine early and late peripheral plasma lipid levels and symptoms, cognitive, functional, and HRQOL outcomes over time in patients who do and do not receive reperfusion intervention; 4) Explore the relationships of 13 lipid classes with symptoms, cognitive, functional, and HRQOL outcomes over 6 months in (4a) distal and proximal arterial plasma lipid levels in reperfusion intervention group (4b/c) peripheral plasma lipid levels in AIS patients (4b) who did and (4c) did not receive reperfusion intervention. Descriptive statistics, linear mixed modeling, and integrative multivariate omics analysis will be used to achieve aims 1 through 4.