Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a common cause of disability and mortality and represents a massive global burden of disease with 17 million people estimated to be affected worldwide. In addition to neurological complications, multi-organ dysfunction (MOD) is increasingly recognised and is associated with negative lifelong impacts.There is no known cure for CP and the exact cause is often not determined so we aim to integrate neuroimaging, genomics, perinatal data and biomarkers to improve sub classification of the aetiology of CP.
Lifespan care and multiorgan dysfunction: There is a lack of integration of care for people with CP across the life-course and no standardised management of MODs. We will quantify the degree of multi-organ dysfunction across the lifespan to allow earlier prediction of multiorgan outcomes and the development of precise multidisciplinary therapy for CP using multiorgan biomarkers.
Immune responses and persistent inflammation in CP: Persistent inflammation is well-described in animal models after neonatal brain injury correlating with neurodevelopmental issues and more recently in humans by our group. Irrespective of the cause of CP immune function dysregulation correlates with functional deficits in animal models and human infants and children. We will evaluate whether persistent dysregulated immune function in infants, children and adults with CP links with clinical outcomes. Detailed immunophenotyping across the lifespan may have benefit as a biomarker of function, outcomes and to guide response to therapy.
Personalised therapies: Individual immunophenotyping and individual responses to in vitro medications such as melatonin will assist in the development of personalised therapies for CP. This unique national and international project involves families and people with CP throughout and has the potential to transform the diagnostic processes, the multi-organ management and the creation of integrated evidence to increase function for all people with CP across the lifespan.