NIH Award Supports Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Detection Through the Eye
Article Summary
- Bascom Palmer Eye Institute researchers will use NIH funding to detect and characterize cerebral small vessel disease.
- CSVD is a central nervous system disorder that contributes to cognitive impairment and dementia.
- Dr. Jianhua Wang will lead a multidisciplinary team of researchers that includes scientists, clinical researchers and computer experts.
Researchers at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have received a $4.7 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund Venture Program Oculomics Initiative.
The funding will support the creation of novel imaging techniques to identify precise changes in capillary function to detect and characterize cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). CSVD contributes to cognitive impairment and dementia.
Jianhua (Jay) Wang, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer, is lead principal investigator of the award.
“Using the eye as a window to the central nervous system, Dr. Wang has assembled a multidisciplinary team to create an advanced non-invasive ophthalmic imaging device that will read capillary blood flow through the retina and establish new biomarkers for cerebral small vessel disease,” said Eduardo Alfonso, M.D., director and chair of Bascom Palmer. “This is transformational research that will benefit thousands of patients.”
Dr. Wang’s team includes scientists, clinical researchers and computer experts. Co-principal investigators include:
• Yuhua Zhang, Ph.D., of the Doheny Eye Institute and professor of ophthalmology at the University of California, Los Angeles
• Liang Liang, Ph.D., an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Miami.
Detecting Capillary Blood Flow
Dr. Zhang, an expert in adaptive optics, high-resolution imaging and retinal hemodynamics, will make the instrument with his team at the Doheny Eye Institute. Dr. Liang will support efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) and other computational approaches.
“Cerebral small vessel disease is a systemic condition in which the capillary network becomes unhealthy or even gets remodeled, impairing blood flow,” said Dr. Wang, scientific co-director of Bascom Palmer’s Experimental Imaging Laboratory. “Without proper blood profusion, tissues are starved, which is particularly dangerous in the brain.”
Dr. Wang has developed a wide range of imaging modalities at Bascom Palmer that study structural and functional alterations in eyes during normal aging and eyes with various disorders.
Current technologies like MRI can detect blood flow in larger vessels but fail in tiny capillaries. This has significant ramifications, as capillary blood flow is much like the ubiquitous small package trucks that course through neighborhoods. Without local delivery, cells do not receive enough nutrition and oxygen.
“As we age, CSVD can play a major role in dementia,” said Dr. Wang. “Though it probably does not cause Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or other brain conditions, it certainly contributes to them and probably accelerates the disease process.”
Oculomics could provide the technological boost to better understand what’s happening in the brain. The instrument Dr. Wang and colleagues are developing is called a high-speed, widefield adaptive optics near-confocal ophthalmoscope (AONCO). This novel device will read capillary blood flow through the retina, help establish new biomarkers to detect CSVD, and use machine learning and other means to infer capillary health in the brain and possibly throughout the body.
Multidisciplinary Team of Researchers
Bascom Palmer physicians and scientists on the team project include:
• Hong Jiang, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of clinical ophthalmology and neurology, who will conduct the screening and clinical efforts
• Felipe Medeiros, M.D., Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology and Bascom Palmer’s vice chair of research, who will provide expertise in data science, bioinformatics and clinical studies
• Robert O’Brien, Ph.D., a statistician who will use AI to further improve the methodology.
Additional Miller School collaborators include physicians and scientists from the departments of radiology and neurology, including:
• Tatjana Rundek, M.D., Ph.D., scientific director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute
• Jose Romano, M.D., chair of the Department of Neurology
• Victor Jose Del Brutto Andrade, M.D., a vascular neurologist
• Pradip Pattany, Ph.D., a research professor in the Department of Radiology
• Juan Pablo de Rivero Vaccari, Ph.D., a research associate professor of neurological surgery and The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
In addition, John Detre, M.D., professor of neurology and radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will consult on the project.
“This is a complex problem and we have assembled a diverse team of scientists to solve it,” said Dr. Wang. “We have experts in neurology, neuro-ophthalmology, engineering, computer science and many other disciplines. The potential for this device over the next 20 to 30 years is huge. Together, we will develop an instrument that can illuminate capillary health in the brain and provide much-needed insights into these challenging neurological diseases.”
Tags: Alzheimer's disease, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, dementia, Dr. Jianhua Wang, eye diseases, NIH grant, Parkinson's disease