Developing Smart 3D Scaffolds based on Conductive Polymers and Carbon Nanotubes for Cardiac Tissue Engineering

Project Information

NanoBeat

Grant agreement ID: 753293

DOI

10.3030/753293

Project closed

EC signature date 28 June 2017

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 30 April 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 257 191,20

EU contribution

€ 257 191,20

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NanoBeat (Developing Smart 3D Scaffolds based on Conductive Polymers and Carbon Nanotubes for Cardiac Tissue Engineering)

Reporting period: 2020-05-01 to 2021-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Diseases of the heart and circulatory system are the largest single cause of death in the European Union, accounting for about the 30% of deaths, as well as being responsible for the largest number of premature deaths before the age of 75 years. These diseases cause heart enlargement, heart failure and, unfortunately, there is no current no effective treatments. The focus of this reserch is to treat the diseased heart muscle: myocardial infarction, which generates muscle damage and necrosis; cardiomyopathies, which affect 1 each 500 people and are a leading cause of sudden death particularly among young people and athletes; and rare neurodegenerative diseases that cause muscular dystrophy, as the Duchenne muscular distrophy (DMD) that affects 1 in every 3500-5000 kids and causes death at 20-30 years old. Once damaged, cardiac muscle has little intrinsic repair ability due to the poor regeneration potential of remaining healthy cardiomyocytes. The final aim of this research is to develop find a suitable hydrogel or conductive scaffold able to support cardiomyocyte differentiation and generate functional artificial cardiac tissue.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

We have design and manufactured novel 3D scaffolds, aimed as future prosthetic implants, which are conductive and have interesting porosity and properties to allow cells growth inside and form healthy cardiac replacement tissue. In tissue regeneration, the key for success is that the implant mimics as much as possible the tissue of interest. Indeed, our scaffolds are composed of conductive material to provide electrical coupling with the heart, known to use electric impulses to produce contractions.

During the first phase of NanoBeat, we have produced multiple scaffolds with different compositions and studied their suitability as supports to promote cardiac cells adhesion and growth, for subsequent formation of artificial cardiac tissue. As conclusions, we elucidated which composition and, therefore, 3D scaffold has higher potential for growing healthy tissue and future implantation, afterwards.

In the second phase, we synthesized novel formulations of PEDOT with thermoplastic polymers (PLA, PVA and PCL) that were 3D printed into patterned 3D scaffolds. Cultured primary CMs and have proven that such structures are able to reshape CMs and guide them towards a mature cell morphology and functionality: we observed the formation of ECM and large beating tissue, suggesting that our patterned material has huge potential to the formation of artificial healthy tissue for replacing and/or regenerating the damaged heart areas.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Multiple experimental studies suggest that the use of nanoparticles in medicine may revolutionize the therapeutic success in numerous diseases. However, the usage of nanotechnology is currently limited in the cardiac field. The studies proposed in this project will allow to advance the field of translational research, improve biological applications to micro-nanobiotechnology, and expand the opportunities of innovative mechanistic and therapeutic investigations. Furthermore, we have introduced in Europe a new field of cardio-nanoscience that is not exploited anywhere, using platforms based of carbon nanomaterials to regenerate and treat myocardium diseases.

In general, the impact expected from the results of NanoBeat is still relevant and undergoes as initially anticipated. The project findings are likely to be significant for the competitiveness and excellence of European research. In the second stage, I was capable to transfer the learned concepts and stablish the cardionanoscience field to Biodonostia HRI, which has not been exploited anywhere and, as initially stated, will have high potential for the cardiomyopathy therapy. The obtained results up do date show that we are in the correct path to move towards to the clinical applications to treat heart diseases and reducing the number of heart transplants worldwide and contributing to the European industrial innovation.

We are now close to obtain an optimal device to treat diseased hearts, which in the long-term will be a promising field for the materials industry for industrial-scale production, thus contributing to European industrial innovation in the nanoscience industry. These are frequent lethal diseases with no current treatment. Therefore, our success means that a large number of patients will benefit from cardiac tissue engineering and have a long live ahead, thus reducing the number of heart transplants.

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