Project: Cerebrovascular-immune interfaces: searching for an immune signature coupling hypertension to cognitive dysfunction.

Acronym	ImmuneHyperCog (Reference Number: ERA-CVD_JTC2020-020)
Duration	01/01/2021 - 31/12/2023
Project Topic	Hypertension is widely recognized as one of the most impacting risk factors for cognitive impairment. While epidemiological associations strengthened this observation during years, mechanistic investigations that may unravel the pathophysiological basis of this detrimental relationship are just at dawn. In the last years, we became aware that immune system participates to onset of hypertension and related target organ damage. Several studies demonstrated that various players of innate and adaptive immunity shape the effect induced by hypertension in target organs. Despite protected by a unique vascular system, the brain is not an exception, suggesting that the crosstalk between peripheral and resident immune components may play a decisive role in the evolution of cognitive impairment in hypertension. The complexity of vascular and immune interactions in the brain are further enriched by cells lining the vasculature, like pericytes, and the neuronal network itself. Here we have combined the complementary expertise of our groups to investigate the cerebrovascular-immune interface in experimental hypertension, with unprecedented details. Transgenic animal models, advanced in vivo imaging, fate mapping studies and an innovative experimental system to reproduce and study ex vivo the interface established by immune and vascular cells in the cerebrovascular system will be merged in our ImmuneHypertCog Strategy. In the end, we conceived a translational aim dedicated to investigating the correlation between the immune landscape and early markers of brain damage at MRI in patients.
Network	ERA-CVD
Call	ERA-CVD Joint Transnational Call 2020

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	IRCCS Neuromed Mediterranean Neurological Institute	Coordinator	Italy
2	Tel Aviv University	Partner	Israel
3	Hacettepe University	Partner	Türkiye
4	Jagiellonian University	Partner	Poland
5	University Health Network	Partner	Canada