Project description
Mitochondria wellness against obesity and ageing
Mitochondria – the cellular organelles responsible for energy production – can dysfunction due to oxidative damage, nutrient imbalance, or genetic mutations. This stress may increase the generation of reactive oxygen species, disturb cellular processes, and cause disease. In other cases, it triggers a process known as mitohormesis that tends to relieve mitochondrial stress with beneficial effects for the cell. Funded by the European Research Council, the MitoHealth project aims to explore the role of mitohormesis against obesity and age-related issues. Researchers will study the phenomenon of mitohormesis in vascular endothelial cells and assess its preventive and curative impact on obesity and associated metabolic changes. MitoHealth is expected to identify circulating mitohormesis mediators as potential pharmacological targets.
Objective
Obesity and aging are two of the most important health challenges facing our societies in the 21st century. However, there are currently no effective therapeutic approaches to mitigate the growing obesity pandemic or to promote healthy aging. Therefore, it is essential to explore new research frontiers in order to develop more effective and safer strategies.
Mitohormesis, the process by which induced mitochondrial stress can trigger beneficial health effects, has emerged as a promising area of study in biomedical research. However, its potential effectiveness against metabolic and aging-associated disorders in vertebrate organisms is poorly explored. We have generated a mouse model that exhibits enhanced mitohormesis in the vascular endothelial cells. In this proposal, we intend to conduct a proof of concept to assess whether triggering endothelial mitohormesis can serve as a novel approach for treating obesity and age-related health issues.
To this aim, we will execute 4 work packages to determine: (a) the preventive and (b) curative effect of endothelial mitohormesis on obesity and associated metabolic alterations; (c) the impact of the promotion of endothelial mitohormesis on aging markers; (d) the identity of new circulating mitohormetic mediators with the potential to be pharmacological targets. These studies will be carried out by a research team with an extraordinary track-record in the fields of metabolism and aging.
Our objective will be bringing the technology from TRL3 to TRL4 by evaluating the performance and feasibility of the technology in a controlled laboratory environment. The research team will closely work with the Tech Transfer Office to ensure the implementation of a successful IPR strategy. A therapy based on the controlled induction of endothelial mitohormesis could have a great impact on the quality of life of millions of patients, reduce the burden of chronic diseases on the health system and have important economic repercussions.
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.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologypandemics
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionobesity
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept GrantsHost institution
08036 Barcelona
Spain