Project description
An injectable, targeted, photoactivated therapy for congenital hyperinsulinism
The body’s cells are ‘fuelled’ by glucose produced by digestion of carbohydrates. When blood glucose levels rise, pancreatic beta cells release insulin which enables the body to absorb glucose. Too much or too little circulating blood glucose can cause problems. Congenital hyperinsulinism is a condition in newborns and infants caused by an overproduction of insulin, resulting in dangerously low blood glucose levels and hypoglycaemic brain injury. There is currently no therapy available without severe side effects, continuing health problems and tremendous economic burden. The EU-funded LightCure project intends to demonstrate that its injectable targeted photodynamic therapy can kill hyperfunctioning beta cells safely and effectively, enabling a normal life for babies and their families.
Objective
Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is a group of rare diseases of newborns and infants with functionally defective nonneoplastic beta-cells that cause hypoglycemia and severe morbidity through oversecretion of insulin. CHI is a major cause of hypoglycemic brain injury with intellectual disability, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. As no registered causal therapy exists, management of CHI aims at increasing blood glucose levels causing severe side effects in all patients while life-threatening frequent hypoglycaemias remain. Removal of hyperfunctioning beta cells by pancreatectomy leads to insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and maldigestion of food, changing one disease for another with severe secondary morbidity. Management of CHI is choosing between evils and symptomatic management is partially effective in only some sub-types. CHI also represents a major burden for families, because of disability but also as a result of continuous monitoring and correction of glucose levels for many years, requiring permanent alertness. Health problems and economic decline occur in most parents. A normal life is not feasible for families with babies with CHI. LightCure consortium partners have demonstrated the feasibility of selectively targeting beta cells using exendin 4 (EX) labelled with a photosensitizer (700DX) specifically binding to beta cells. This photosensitizer can be activated by light of a certain wavelength and will produce radical oxygen species leading to cell damage, a principle called targeted photodynamic therapy (tPDT). In this project we will build on existing cutting-edge technology exclusively available to the consortium partners and perform human proof of concept studies demonstrating safety and efficacy of tPDT with EX700DX. We will deliver the proof-of-concept that after injection of EX700DX, minimally invasive tPDT leads to normalization of blood glucose levels avoiding morbidity, enabling a normal life for babies with CHI and their families.
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 basic medicine neurology epilepsy
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine endocrinology diabetes
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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.2.1 - Health
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.1.3 - Non-Communicable and Rare Diseases
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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-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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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) HORIZON-HLTH-2022-DISEASE-06-two-stage
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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.
6525 GA NIJMEGEN
Netherlands
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.