Objective
Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) is the biggest single cause of death in Europe and in the developed world. Angioplasty and stents are successful in re-establishing perfusion of ischemic myocardium and have helped to reduce early mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However damaged tissue is not recovered and, therefore, this is always followed by cardiac remodelling and Chronic Heart Failure (CHF). CHF is a terminal disease with an annual mortality rate of ~18% with no cure besides heart transplantation, only available to a minority of patients. Autologous cell therapy has been proposed as a solution and clinically tested but has proven marginally effective at best. Its cost and the complexity of clinical procedures make it unsuitable for treating the large number of patients that need affordable and readily available products to treat the acute phase of the disease. Moreover, most of these approaches are predicated on the outmoded concept that the adult human myocardium lacks regenerative capacity. Recent findings show that adult myocardium harbours a population of resident pluripotent cells with the characteristics of true cardiac stem cells (CSC) able to regenerate contractile myocardium. This opens novel therapeutic avenues capable of producing real anatomical and functional regeneration. The CARE-MI proposal addresses the clinical implementation of this recent paradigmatic change. We will clinically test and further develop myocardial regenerative therapies based on the in situ activation, multiplication and differentiation of the endogenous CSCs with the aim to provide therapies that are: a)Affordable, in terms of the production costs of the medicinal product b)Readily and widely available, implying that the product may be easily stored and readied for application at all times at minimum cost. c)Easy to apply and compatible with current clinical standard of care for AMI, including the widespread use of PTCA interventions
Field of science
- /medical and health sciences/medical biotechnology/cells technologies/stem cells
- /social sciences/sociology/demography/mortality
- /medical and health sciences/basic medicine/pharmacology and pharmacy/pharmaceutical drug
Call for proposal
FP7-HEALTH-2009-single-stage
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
CP-IP - Large-scale integrating projectCoordinator
28029 Madrid
Spain
Participants (19)
Participation ended
10071 Cáceres
28760 Madrid
9713 GX Groningen
7575 EJ Oldenzaal
Participation ended
74036 Ness Ziona
10071 Caceres
2781-901 Oeiras
08007 Barcelona
Participation ended
L3 5UX Liverpool
37075 Goettingen
5684 PC Best
28050 Madrid
75010 Paris
3000 Leuven
1000 Ljubljana
Participation ended
9052 Zwijnaarde - Gent
02520 Albacete
28760 Tres Cantos - Madrid
WC2R 2LS London