The role of miR-19b, miR-194 and miR-362-3p in development, expansion and rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm

• Applicant: Dr. Albert Busch
• Subject Area: General and Visceral Surgery ; General Genetics and Functional Genome Biology
• Term: from 2015 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270710045

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is the pathological enlargement of the infrarenal aortic vessel wall with important surgical and economical aspects. Morbidity and mortality due to acute rupture cause a dramatic health burden. Until now, no conservative form of treatment or cure is available. The main focus in recent research has been laid upon the late stages of the disease, mostly deriving from human tissue samples at the time of surgical intervention. Clinical approaches using doxycycline, statins or sartans however have failed due to incomplete understanding of the pathogenesis. Recently microRNAs have gained much interest due to their ability to influence complex processes on the post-transcriptional level. In our preliminary work, we identified miR-194, miR-19b und miR-362-3p to be significantly downregulated in aneurysmal aortic tissue from human samples in comparison to healthy controls. The host laboratory could impressively demonstrate the effectiveness of microRNA modification on aneurysm development and growth in vivo, utilizing two independent murine models of inducible aortic aneurysm. Their expertise and methods are now to be used to evaluate the therapeutic potential of our pre-identified candidate microRNAs.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Sweden
• Host: Professor Dr. Lars Mägdefessel