👤 Joan Jiménez-Balado

A stroke's functional outcome presents vast variability among patients, which is influenced by age, sex, characteristics of the lesion, and genetic factors. However, there is little knowledge about stroke recovery genetics. Recently, some GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Studies) have highlighted the involvement of common or low-frequency variants near or within We performed a pilot study analyzing 90 exomes of extreme good and bad recovery (modified Rankin Scale score at 3 months, 0-1 versus 4-5) to select target genes involved in stroke recovery. To expand this study, 702 additional samples were sequenced by targeted next-generation sequencing capturing loci selected from the pilot study, GWASs, and literature input. Here, we performed continuous (modified Rankin Scale score, 0-6) and dichotomous (modified Rankin Scale score, 0-1 versus 3-6) analyses, yielding 1 candidate gene. All samples were selected by a retrospective cohort study from incidental stroke cases collected at Spanish Hospitals between 2000 and 2018. The identified VNN2 variants were assessed for protein structure and stability analysis, and an analysis of their effect on basal inflammation levels was performed using UK Biobank data. Our work identified rare coding variants in We propose that Show less

Through GWAS studies we identified PATJ associated with functional outcome after ischemic stroke (IS). The aim of this study was to determine PATJ role in brain endothelial cells (ECs) in the context of stroke outcome. PATJ expression analyses in patient's blood revealed that: (i) the risk allele of rs76221407 induces higher expression of PATJ, (ii) PATJ is downregulated 24 h after IS, and (iii) its expression is significantly lower in those patients with functional independence, measured at 3 months with the modified Rankin scale ((mRS) ≤2), compared to those patients with marked disability (mRS = 4-5). In mice brains, PATJ was also downregulated in the injured hemisphere at 48 h after ischemia. Oxygen-glucose deprivation and hypoxia-dependent of Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α also caused PATJ depletion in ECs. To study the effects of PATJ downregulation, we generated PATJ-knockdown human microvascular ECs. Their transcriptomic profile evidenced a complex cell reprogramming involving Notch, TGF-ß, PI3K/Akt, and Hippo signaling that translates in morphological and functional changes compatible with endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndMT). PATJ depletion caused loss of cell-cell adhesion, upregulation of metalloproteases, actin cytoskeleton remodeling, cytoplasmic accumulation of the signal transducer C-terminal transmembrane Mucin 1 (MUC1-C) and downregulation of Notch and Hippo signaling. The EndMT phenotype of PATJ-depleted cells was associated with the nuclear recruitment of MUC1-C, YAP/TAZ, β-catenin, and ZEB1. Our results suggest that PATJ downregulation 24 h after IS promotes EndMT, an initial step prior to secondary activation of a pro-angiogenic program. This effect is associated with functional independence suggesting that activation of EndMT shortly after stroke onset is beneficial for stroke recovery. Show less