Project description
A Trojan horse therapy for inflammatory bowel disease
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are characterised by chronic inflammation in the intestine. Despite their rising prevalence, the precise aetiology remains unknown. To improve the clinical outcome of IBD patients, the EU-funded LeukoTheranostics project aims to target immune cells that are responsible for the observed intestinal inflammation. Researchers will develop nanoparticles that encompass RNA interference molecules as a therapeutic treatment and target a specific protein expressed on the surface of gut leukocytes. The team will employ mouse models of IBD to track in vivo the nanoparticles and assess their efficacy, paving the way for an innovative IBD treatment of high clinical value.
Objective
"Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is a group of chronic inflammatory conditions of the gastrointestinal tract, including Crohn’s disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) that can impact both the large and small bowel. IBD affects approximately 3.7 million Europeans and its peak onset is in persons of 15 to 30 years of age. IBD imposes a significant burden on Europe with over €3B in annual health care costs and over €3B in indirect cost. The prevalence of IBD is expected to increase by more than 40% over the next decade in many European countries. Therefore, to meet the needs of IBD patients in the European community, we must prepare for the evolving landscape of IBD care in the near future. Although its etiology remains unknown, unregulated immune cells are implicated in the pathogenesis of IBD. As many IBD patients are refractory to conventional medical treatments, there is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutic modalities in combination with real-time imaging in order to manage the disease. I will achieve this goal by generating a ""Trojan horse"" strategy of targeting activated leukocytes that home to the gut in IBD rodent models and reprogram their fate using RNA interference (RNAi) combined with molecular imaging.
The primary objective of this proposal is to reprogram in vivo activated leukocytes involved in gut inflammation using advanced RNAi-based therapeutics combined with molecular imaging strategies as the first theranostic modality utilizing leukocytes. The following specific aims include: (i) To develop and characterize unique integrin-targeted nanoparticles (I-tsNPs) targeting a high-affinity (HA) conformation of a4b7 integrin expressed on gut leukocytes; (ii) To study I-tsNPs 3-dimensional (3-D) delivery in colitis models using microPET/CT imaging; (iii) To investigate efficacy and safety profiles using the HA I-tsNPs platform for IBD therapeutics and disease management that will lay the foundation for future clinical trials.
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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.
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.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine gastroenterology inflammatory bowel disease
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules lipids
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials
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Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
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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.
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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-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2014-CoG
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69978 Tel Aviv
Israel
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