Understanding how abnormalities in the main blood vessels of the heart occur

Molecular regulation of great vessel formation and remodelling (Ms Elena Ioannou)

Some congenital heart conditions affect the major vessels that connect the heart to rest of the circulation. This can include the aorta and its branches, or vessels that connect arteries in the lungs to the heart. After birth, holes or misconnections in these vessels can cause oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to mix or prevent blood from properly entering the circulation. Unless these issues are identified early and treated promptly, the outlook for babies with these congenital heart diseases is poor. Previous research shows that a molecule called NRP1 instructs blood vessel and heart muscle cells to form the two major channels that help blood leave the heart. However, it is not fully understood how NRP1 has this effect. In this project, the team aim to find out which cell types produce NRP1 and exactly when it acts to tell vessels to form and connect during heart development. They already know that NRP1 acts as a ‘lock’ for different molecular ‘keys’, and so this project will also focus on identifying which molecules are the ‘keys’ that switch on NRP1 activity. Understanding the way that NRP1 controls the formation of these major heart vessels will improve the accuracy of diagnosis for some babies with congenital heart diseases and could, in the long run, lead to more personalised treatments for them.