Genomics in Heart Transplants

A cross-sectional analysis of 200 heart transplant recipients, combining in-depth phenotyping and risk factor assessment (cardiac MRI, coronary angiogram with OCT, cardiorespiratory exercise tests, exogenic factors like nutrition, smoking, lipid profile) with short-read whole-genome sequencing to elucidate the interplay of established PRS from the literature and exogenic risk factors with respect to HTx outcomes will be carried out.

Besides that, a long-read whole-genome sequencing of 100 newly transplanted recipients and their corresponding donors and extend latest bioinformatics methods developed by the study to analyze long-read data will be performed. This will enable a comprehensive and integrated analysis of structural variants, polygenic risk, high-penetrance variant genotypes, immunogenetic (major and minor histocompatibility), and individual lifestyle risk factors in a unique donor-recipient cohort, elucidating the extent of within-cohort variability and cross-correlations between the considered potential risk factors and an exploratory analysis of the utility of genetic risk scores in light of the study results will be carried out.