Project description
Stepping up knee osteoarthritis treatment
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) afflicts over 500 million individuals globally, causing substantial pain and disability. With limited therapeutic options, including only pain management or invasive surgery, the socio-economic burden is staggering. With increasing life expectancy and obesity rates, this burden is set to escalate. With this in mind, the EU-funded ENCANTO project is using tissue-engineered cartilage (N-TEC) to target patellofemoral OA, a challenging subset. N-TEC, crafted from autologous nasal chondrocytes, offers promise for joint reconstruction. The project will evaluate N-TEC’s treatment efficacy. Notably, ENCANTO integrates diverse expertise, spanning tissue engineering, knee surgery, regulatory affairs, and patient advocacy. If successful, N-TEC could revolutionise OA therapy, extending to other joints.
Objective
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common causes of pain and disability, affecting over 500 million people worldwide. The tremendous socio-economic burden caused by OA is expected to further increase due to rising life expectancy and obesity. Current therapeutic approaches are limited to pain management or knee arthroplasty, but no disease-modifying or regenerative treatment is available.
ENCANTO will address this major unmet clinical need by clinically introducing a combined ATMP for the biological reconstruction of the degenerated joint facet in patellofemoral OA (PFOA). This tissue-engineered cartilage (N-TEC), based on autologous nasal chondrocytes and a collagen membrane, was previously successfully used for focal cartilage lesions.
The central part of ENCANTO is an international, blinded, multicenter, prospective randomized controlled phase II trial to clinically assess the efficacy of N-TEC for the treatment of PFOA. Patients’ samples will be analyzed to retrospectively identify PFOA molecular endotypes and associated biomarker signatures with the most successful clinical outcome after N-TEC implantation, to predictively select responders to therapy. To achieve these aims ENCANTO brings together tissue engineers with practice in ATMPs, knee surgery and rehabilitation specialists, research institutes experienced in regulatory affairs, health economics and ATMP development, excellent scientists involved in the assessment of OA endotypes, and patients’ representatives. SMEs from the consortium will develop a road map towards commercial exploitation, including centralized marketing authorization. After demonstrating efficacy for PFOA, N-TEC will be considered for other forms of OA in different joints. ENCANTO will thus introduce the first disease-modifying therapy for cartilage degeneration, enable mobility and social gain for a large patient group and play a pivotal role in strengthening Europe's position in delivering regenerative medicine solutions.
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.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
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.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine surgery
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine physiotherapy
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology tissue engineering
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine orthopaedics
- social sciences economics and business economics health economics
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.2.1.5 - Tools, Technologies and Digital Solutions for Health and Care, including personalised medicine
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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.
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-2023-TOOL-05
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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.
00128 Roma
Italy
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.