Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-06-18

Glomerulonephritis and Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis as a Model to Investigate the Link between Inflammation and Kidney Disease: <br/>From Basic Mechanisms to Clinical Application

Objective

"Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) and focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) are severe kidney diseases responsible for irreversible renal failure, which is a major risk factor for mortality. Despite the aggressiveness of immunosuppressive protocols applied, treatments against RPGN have limited effectiveness. Similarly, there is no specific treatment for FSGS. We built this research project on novel identification of molecular pathways and markers of pathogenic glomerular epithelial cells (GEC). Although major roles of endothelial activation with immune-mediated insult and imbalance between coagulation and fibrinolysis have been demonstrated, our findings reinforce this paradigm that “activation” of resident glomerular cells play a key role in disease and extend the concept by examining interactions between surrounding cellular systems. We hypothesize that abnormal activation of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and EGFR may synergize to switch the phenotype of GECs from healthy to pathological. We propose that coagulation and dysfunction of the capillary barrier, may provide GPCR ligands to receptors present in target cells such as GECs. GPCRs, themselves implicated in GN, are known to transactivate the EGFR. The EGFR has the potential to amplify actions of GPCRs in GECs, leading to cytoskeletal rearrangement, and cell death. We hypothesise that interactions between “switched GECs” and T cells are essential for the perpetuation of the immuno-inflammatory response in such glomerular diseases, after the potentially groundbreaking discovery that lymphocytes display functional EGFR, sensitive to ligands produced by pathological GECs. Finally, we will harness this knowledge for a better identification of patients at risk of glomerular demolition. Our project should identify complementary therapeutic pathways that could then be targeted on top of current immunosuppressive regiments. We also propose that this approach would be beneficial to FSGS."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2012-StG_20111109
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE
EU contribution
€ 1 364 466,00
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0