Imagine, if scientists had a map of the heart, so granular in its accuracy that it would even outline details of the heart at the cellular level. What if we could expand even further, using the single-core profile, to look inside the heart with a molecular vision? Imagine the incredible possibilities of such a detailed map: with this knowledge, doctors will be better able to diagnose and treat diseases of the heart and cardiovascular system.
This is precisely what a team of 19 scientists is determined to learn, in a new peer-reviewed study published in the scientific journal Nature. The study, entitled “Single-core profile of dilated and hypertrophic human cardiomyopathy,” identified molecular alterations in failed hearts with unicellular resolution, performing single-core RNA sequencing of nearly 600,000 nuclei. This is really a story of how a “small vision” can have “big possibilities”.
The team was led by Patrick T. Ellinor, MD, PhD, a member of the MIT Broadcasting Institute and Harvard and a cardiologist at the Demoulas Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center. The team of Dr. Ellinor included scientists from the Precision Cardiology Lab (PCL) of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Bayer, AG and MMRI.
Dr. Nathan Tucker of the Masonic Institute for Medical Research was the driving force behind the start of the study when he was at Broad, and continued to contribute to the study from his laboratory in Utica, New York. “We often think that hearts are just muscles, but they’re actually a complex mix of cells that need to work together to perform their pump function,” Dr. Tucker said of the new study. “In the past, we have not been able to look at these other critical components, but through a revolutionary technology like the one we use here, our ability to accurately examine these other cells is unlocked. In this study, using this technology and a series of human tissue samples, we identified new state transitions in end-stage heart failure with unique cell resolution. Our hope is to use these new targets as a basis for therapeutic development in the future. ” .
The innovative effort is based on the already extensive work of Dr. Tucker on heart mapping. In 2020, Dr. Tucker led a team to create a cell map of the human heart, the most comprehensive to date, stating, “Understanding human cardiac biology with this resolution was not possible just a few years ago.”
Source:
Masonic Institute for Medical Research
Magazine reference:
10.1038 / s41586-022-04817-8