A Vertical Omics Investigation of Alcohol Related Brain Injury

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  A Vertical Omics Investigation of Alcohol Related Brain Injury

• IRAS ID

  259092

• Contact name

  Munir Pirmohamed

• Duration of Study in the UK

  5 years, 0 months, 0 days

• Research summary

  Summary of research

  The aim of this project is to investigate the mechanism(s) of alcohol-related brain injury. We recently estimated 12-month period prevalence of alcohol-related brain injury in all inpatients with alcohol use disorder at an acute care hospital to be 5.8%. However, there is a lack of underlying biological knowledge regarding alcohol-related brain injury which means care is not standardised.

  This study will adopt a case-control approach to investigate mechanistic outcomes at baseline, and within and between groups over time. There will be a total of three groups in this study: the cases will have been diagnosed with alcohol-related brain injury according to local procedures; the first control group will be heavy drinkers with no diagnosed evidence of alcohol-related disease; and the second control group will be those with alcohol-related cirrhosis. Participants will be followed-up over time, and when attending clinical appointments they will be asked to provide further samples/data (i.e. serial sampling approach) at approximately 3 and 6 months after recruitment.

  We will collect blood and urine from all participants (n=178) alongside data from the participant and their medical records. There will also be a subset of participants that will be asked to undergo brain MRI scans (n=16), and a further subset that will be asked to provide stool samples (n=10) for microbiome analysis. We will use the data and samples to study the mechanistic factors underlying alcohol-related brain injury onset and progression. We will attempt to answer certain questions including: 1) Do certain genes or genetic variations increase the risk or protect against the development of alcohol-related brain injury? 2) Are there biomarkers that predict onset and progression? 3) What are the structural and functional changes in the brain when alcohol-related brain injury is clinically detected?

  Summary of results

  The primary analysis of the data is yet to be completed. Recruitment to the project was impacted by Covid-19 and staff undertaking the day-to-day running of the study have now moved institute.

• REC name

  North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  19/NW/0053

• Date of REC Opinion

  18 Mar 2019

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion