Light and Organic Nanotechnology for Cardiovascular Disease

Project Information

LION-HEARTED

Grant agreement ID: 828984

DOI

10.3030/828984

Project closed

EC signature date 16 January 2019

Start date 1 May 2019

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

€ 2 904 413,75

EU contribution

€ 2 904 413,75

Coordinated by

FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - LION-HEARTED (Light and Organic Nanotechnology for Cardiovascular Disease)

Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, with an increasing incidence in the aging population and a huge socio-economic impact. Heart failure (HF), the common end point of virtually all CV disorders, displays the greatest negative impact on quality of life, leading to the disruption of daily management and increasing dependence on care-givers. Unfortunately, an effective pharmacological treatment is currently lacking, as it is not possible to reverse disease progression; as a consequence, the long-term survival remains poor, and heart transplantation is the only possibility for end-stage HF patients. Thus, a breakthrough approach to preserve or, at least, restore CV function and to rescue systemic blood perfusion is urgently required.
LION-HEARTED demonstrates a novel optoceutic platform, based on synergistic combination of light and organic nanotechnology, to restore cardiac function and vascularization, by modulating fate and proliferation of main cardiovascular cell types. Optical modulation provides unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution, lower invasiveness, and higher selectivity in respect to the traditional electrical and pharmaceutical control methods. Organic semiconductors act as efficient, highly biocompatible phototransducers, able to trigger biological pathways relevant to cardiac repair both in vitro and in vivo, with a minimally invasive and gene-less approach.
LION-HEARTED delivered a breakthrough, proof-of-concept device able to trigger pronounced and reliable vascular changes upon therapy, thus circumventing most of the current hurdles of molecular therapies.

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

Main results achieved in RP1 included:

- Realization of novel functional materials and devices, for use in bio-hybrid interfaces;
- Quantitative description of the chemical/physical processes occurring at the interface between the active material and the extracellular environment;
- Establishment of microscopy techniques suitable for the study of biohybrid interfaces;
- First in vitro validation of the LION-HEARTED approach in human endothelial cells.

In RP2, remarkable results were also achieved, including:
1. Realization of porous polymer, light sensitive scaffolds, with a high surface area and sizable enhancement of photoelectrochemical (PEC) reactions;
2. Synthesis and chemical/physical characterization of polymer NPs based on low band gap materials duly completed. NPs in vitro cytotoxicity, in dark and upon illumination, successfully tested. Selection of the NPs material of choice for in vivo tests;
3. Characterization of phototransduction processes occurring at the polymer/electrolyte interface successfully completed. Identification of PEC reactions as the most relevant transduction process leading to modulation of the cell activity. Identification of selection criteria of most effective materials for LH targets. Conjugated polymer and photoexcitation protocols for the next RP agreed within LH consortium;
4. Kinetic Monte Carlo model of the biohybrid interface validated;
5. Machine learning tools developed and available to LH partners;
6. In vitro validation of the LION-HEARTED approach, in the case of the two main targeted cell models, namely human endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs).
7. LED light sources optimized and ready for implantation in mice. First in vivo implantation successful trials;
8. Light sensitive NPs delivery in mice models and optimization of stimulation protocols in safe conditions.

Overall, above mentioned results represented a solid foundation for the last reporting period and progress towards the LION-HEARTED final goal.

Finally, the main achievements obtained during the last RP were:
1. Selection of parameters (nanoparticle type and concentration, delivery, photoexcitation device and protocols) which guarantee biocompatibility in mice;
2. Selective delivery of aptamers-functionalized nanoparticles;
3. Effective promotion of angiogenesis in mice upon photoexcitation of nanoparticles;
4. Successful delivery of nanoparticles in pigs, without no toxicity signs over a short term (10 days after administration);
5. Realization of a proof of concept tool for vascular repair in pigs.

Overall, we believe that the solidity of the data acquired, the precise identification of underlying biophysical pathways, and, very importantly, the results obtained from in vivo experiments, fully support the successful achievement of all LION-HEARTED ambitious goals.

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)

Optoceutics is per se a new research field, well beyond long-established pharmaceutics and even the more recent electroceutic methods. Organic nanotechnology has been very rarely proposed in the field of regenerative medicine for cardiac cells, such as cardiomyocytes and endothelial progenitor cells. Thus, LION-HEARTED goes well beyond the current state of the art, since it exploited for the first time the synergistic combination of optical stimulation with organic nanotechnologies, and it addressed cardiovascular (CV) diseases under a completely different perspective, without the need for viral transfer or gene therapies.
The results achieved by LION-HEARTED activities represent distinct advancements respect to the current state-of-the-art, and fully confirmed the huge potential impact of LION-HEARTED approach in CV diseases.

The improved life expectancy in industrialized countries will result in elderly population with increased perspective incidence of heart failure (HF). HF is regarded as a major public health issue, with a prevalence of >6.5 million patients in EU and >23 million worldwide, which is dramatically rising over the next few decades. Accordingly, there is a lifetime risk of one in five of developing this syndrome. Life expectancy after HF diagnosis ranges from 50% at 5 years to 10% at 10 years. As a consequence, HF displays the greatest negative impact on quality of life leading to the disruption of daily management and increasing dependence on care-givers. HF accounts for ≈1-2% of European hospital admissions, with 24% of patients rehospitalized within the 30-day post discharge period, and accounts for 2% of the total healthcare expenditure in western countries. Despite technological and pharmacological advances fostering early diagnosis and aggressive therapeutic interventions for CV disorders, no new effective drug has been launched on the market to prevent or cure the lethal effects of HF in the last twenty years.

An innovative approach to preserve or, at least, restore the efficiency of cardiac contractility and rescue systemic blood perfusion is, therefore, required. Other than heart transplantation for end-stage HF, there are no effective therapies to treat this syndrome.

Overall, LION-HEARTED successfully addressed hitherto unmet therapeutic needs by envisaging an unexplored, yet technologically feasible approach. The realized proof-of-concept device represents a breakthorugh technology to induce cardiac repair, and will deserve full exploitation in the next future.