Project description:Sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) is death of a child over one year of age that is unexplained after review of clinical history, circumstances of death, and complete autopsy with ancillary testing. Multiple etiologies may cause SUDC, with parallels to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) in SUDC with a history of febrile seizures, suggesting possible abnormalities in hippocampus and cortex. To identify molecular signaling pathways underlying SUDC, we performed label-free quantitative mass spectrometry on microdissected frontal cortex, hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG), and cornu ammonis (CA1-3) in SUDC (n=19) and pediatric control cases (n=19) with an explained cause of death.
Project description:Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is unequivocally identified as an ominous escalation of hemodynamically stressful overload, ultimately heighten risk of sudden death as heart failure (HF) ensues. Here, we explored how dysregulated mitochondrial RNA (mtRNA) metabolism remodels mitochondrial bioenergetics and controls hypertrophic-phenotype cardiopathy in mice and humans. Utilizing targeted genetic approaches and in vivo functional imaging, we describe a potent cardiac pro-hypertrophic role for serine arginine protein kinase 3 (SRPK3), which is highly induced in myocardium upon hypertrophic stimuli. Adult extended expression of SRPK3 in cardiomyocytes (CMs) leads to spontaneously concentric hypertrophy and eventuates sudden cardiac death in mice.
