Abstract 15826: Single-Cell Analysis of Right Ventricle Combined With AI: Implications for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) significantly compromises the functionality of the right ventricle (RV). Our recently established NFU1 mutation-based rat model spontaneously develops PAH and successfully recapitulates main features of human PAH, such as gender dimorphism, right ventricle (RV) hypertrophy and dysfunction with RV-pulmonary artery uncoupling.

Objective: We aimed to discern unique transcriptional differences between in WT and NFU1 rats on the single cell level, which may shed light on potential therapeutic targets for RV hypertrophy in PAH.

Methods: We performed a single-cell transcriptomics analysis of WT and NFU1 RV collected from WT and NFU1 ^G206C rats to determine potential targets for treating RV dysfunction. The single-cell data was processed, and cells were annotated. Differentially expressed (DE) genes in cell types between the WT and NFU1 were determined using a two-sided Wilcoxon rank sum test. Finally, PandaOmics AI was employed to select through RV transcriptomics data (Boucherat, 2022) and extract the top 300 human targets from our key gene findings in the rat model.

Results: We identified several cell types in rat scRNA-seq data, among which cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells had the highest number of human-relevant rat targets. Endothelial cells had 6 targets, Hsp90aa1/b1, Fabp4, Fhl2, Tnni3, Atp2a2, Ndufa4. These genes can affect endothelial cell proliferation, vascular integrity, intracellular transport, and angiogenic phenotype. Cardiomyocytes had 24 identified targets responsible for increased mitochondrial metabolism (Ndufv1, Nme2, Mrpl15), calcium release and muscle contraction (Ryr2, S100a1, Atp2a2), and others.

Conclusions: A distinct disparity is observed in the transcriptional landscape in RV in NFU1 model of PAH. This could either indicate an adaptive response by the RV to increased afterload or be tied to its distinctive embryological/developmental origin, morphology, and functional properties. Novel cell-type-specific potential targets responsible for RV hypertrophy and dysfunction in PAH were discovered.