Project description
Light-activated drugs against epilepsy
Focal epilepsy is a neurological condition associated with the firing of sudden, excessive, uncontrolled electrical signals in one part of the brain known as seizures. Existing pharmacological interventions do not work for all patients and may cause multi-organ side effects. To overcome these limitations, scientists of the EU-funded PhotoTherEpi project propose to develop drugs that become activated upon light administration (photoactivatable drugs – PDs). The work involves the screening of various PDs in vitro and in a mouse model of epilepsy for their anti-epileptic effect. Project results may unveil a novel strategy for controlling focal epilepsy.
Objective
As photo-activatable drugs (PDs) can be precisely controlled in space and time, caged and switchable photoactivatable drugs (CPDs, SPDs) are rapidly emerging as potential therapeutics for varied forms of cancer, vision loss, diabetes, or pain disorders. Despite their potential, PDs have not been exploited for epilepsy, a common, often debilitating neurological disorder. As 30% of epilepsies are medically intractable, and antiepileptic drugs often cause multi-organ side effects, PDs could break new therapeutic ground. PDs can be applied on demand, and locally activated/inactivated in single or multiple epileptic brain areas in a targeted fashion. This minimizes systemic side effects, and allows the application of potent drugs from other fields yet unthinkable in routine epileptology (e.g. general anesthetics). Importantly, being small molecules, different PDs can be combined or easily exchanged, and do not require protein expression. Using current and new PDs, we aim to control epileptic networks in vivo in a realistic epilepsy mouse model, and resected human brain tissue from patients with intractable epilepsy. Aim 1 will quantify antiepileptic potency of a range of PDs in human tissue using field potential and patch-clamp recordings, and cellular scale 2-photon imaging. In aim 2, PDs will be evaluated in vivo using wireless video-EEG, imaging and light-fiber-targeted drug photoactivation in chronically epileptic mice. Further, by use of caged immunomodulators, we will explore disease-modifying capacity of targeted PD photoactivation in epileptogenesis and chronic epilepsy. PhotoTherEpi will establish targeted photopharmacology as a versatile, and powerful new approach to control focal epilepsy, which could jumpstart a new branch of translational epilepsy research. The approach could obviate the need for resective surgery in many cases, and be used in multi-focal epilepsy. Importantly, it may be clinically tested in the foreseeable future.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine neurology epilepsy
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine surgery
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine endocrinology diabetes
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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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.
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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
53127 BONN
Germany
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.