Project description
Evaluating kallikrein-kinin levels in tissues
The plasma kallikrein-kinin system (KKS) is a cascade system that plays an important role in cardiovascular and kidney function regulation. Although we know that the KKS consists of a group of plasma proteins that respond to pathophysiological stimuli and tissue injury, its pathway is incompletely understood. The key objective of the EU-funded TIKKS project is to measure KKS components in tissues. Researchers will employ different mass spectrometric imaging techniques to analyse the presence, distribution, metabolism and overall profile of kinins in different tissues and plasma. Results will provide important insight into the physiological role of the KKS and pave the way towards the discovery of promising drug targets for non-communicable diseases.
Objective
Cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and sepsis are the leading causes of death worldwide. In all of them, a strong involvement of the endogenous kallikrein-kinin system (KKS) is postulated. However, the KKS is only rudimentarily understood, which is also reflected by the large proportion of developed drugs showing insufficient efficacy. The KKS is a 2-arm cascade that is present in both the blood as well as the tissue and its actions are mediated by the so-called kinins. Comprehensive insight into the cascade is greatly hindered by the lack of appropriate bioanalytical techniques. While the fellow has recently developed an innovative mass spectrometric method for the plasma KKS and applied in clinical studies, the tissue KKS has not yet been investigated, although the physiological action is likely exerted only in tissue. The advances in mass spectrometric imaging are currently used for metabolomics or mapping of biomolecules in tissue, but appear to be highly promising also for targeted kinin detection in the tissue KKS. The fellow with his key expertise in targeted mass spectrometric kinin quantification will use different mass spectrometric imaging techniques (DESI, MALDI, MasSpec Pen) to evaluate the tissue KKS. Hence, the TIKKS project is to first time study the presence, distribution, metabolism and overall profile of kinins in different (diseased) tissues by mass spectrometric imaging. For this purpose, various malignant tissues are examined as a main objective and subsequently extended to cardiovascular diseases and angioedema. This innovative approach will allow the fellow to uniquely investigate physiology and pathophysiology across both arms of the KKS (tissue & plasma) and therefore strengthen him on his path to his own professorship. The combined power of the innovative imaging approach and the already established mass spectrometric platform for plasma KKS will critically accelerate the discovery of promising drug targets for non-communicable diseases.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global FellowshipsCoordinator
40225 Dusseldorf
Germany