Project description
Regenerative treatment for cardiac diseases
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a progressive heart muscle disorder associated with enlargement and impaired contraction of ventricles. DCM increases the risk of heart failure and death. The heart has a limited capacity for self-repair, and the existence of bona fide cardiac stem cells is still up for debate. Current stem cell therapies for DCM have shown minimal success due to immune rejection and insufficient cardiomyocyte differentiation. The ERC-funded UniCardioMab project builds on previous work in muscular dystrophy to create immortal, cardiac progenitor cells capable of evading immune responses. These cells will be primed with cardiac transcription factors to become cardiac stem cells and delivered to inflamed heart tissue, providing a novel regenerative strategy for treating otherwise irreversible cardiac damage.
Objective
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the second most common cause of heart failure, currently treated with drugs that delay progress towards heart transplantation. There are currently many attempts to treat DC with stem cells or their extracellular vesicles or AAV vectors: none reached efficacy so far. The applicant has a long track record in cell and gene therapy for muscular dystrophy. He pioneered systemic intra-arterial transplantation of mesoangioblasts (blood vessel-derived progenitors) and, thanks to a previous ERC grant, succeeded in creating immortal, universal donor mesoangioblasts. Edited cells do not activate an immune response in vitro or in vivo. Muscular dystrophy also affects the heart causing a DCM, but a simple extension of this strategy is problematic since the existence of resident cardiac stem cells is controversial and cardiac mesoangioblasts do not spontaneously differ-entiate into cardiomyocytes. iPS cell-derived cardiac progenitors are promising but until now for lo-calised lesions such as myocardial infarcts. To address this problem we will produce immortal, im-mune privileged cardiac mesoangioblasts and will convert them to cardioblasts, in vitro expression of cardiac transcription factors. Since conversion takes about two weeks, we will test different settings to allow cells so that they would home and differentiate in vivo in the areas of damage, characterized by inflammation. The applicant is in the unique position to test feasibility of this project for future translation into a novel clinical protocol.
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.
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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)
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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-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept 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-2024-POC
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20132 Milano
Italy
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