Conductive, self-doping and biodegradable oligoEDOT-heparin biomaterial for improved electromechanical coupling, cardiac cell retention and delivery of paracrine factors

Projektbeschreibung

Neues Biomaterial für eine bessere Zelltherapie nach Herzinfarkt

Eine Zelltherapie nach einem Herzinfarkt kann das Ausmaß des Infarkts bereits nachweislich erfolgreich eingrenzen. Doch eine Schädigung und Fibrose des Herzmuskels kann sie nicht rückgängig machen. Im EU-finanzierten Projekt HepEDOT sollen der Zellerhalt nach einer Therapie verbessert und mögliche Nebenwirkungen wie Herzrhythmusstörungen aufgrund von Transplantaten vermieden werden, um so den Wiederaufbau des Herzmuskels insgesamt zu fördern. Dazu testet das Forschungsteam ein biologisch abbaubares Gerüst aus heparinbasiertem Biomaterial, das die Herzzellen stützen und die elektrische Leitfähigkeit optimieren kann. Ausgehend von den Ergebnissen könnte die Herzzelltherapie als therapeutische Intervention nach einem Herzinfarkt weiter ausgebaut werden.

Ziel

Cell therapy has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy for cardiac repair, showing modest cardiomyocyte protection and infarct size reduction. It is under debate whether these outcomes are due to the implanted cells or their paracrine factors, as cells are scarce within a few weeks post-implantation. Regardless, this is still not sufficient to promote cardiac remuscularization and reverse medium to severe myocardium injury and fibrosis. Improved cell retention has been achieved with a substantial bulk of implanted cells, but highly associated to graft-induced arrhythmia, representing a significant challenge for clinical translation. The present study seeks to promote cardiac remuscularization after infarct, by improving the retention of cardiac cells and their paracrine factors without causing graft-induced arrhythmia. To do so, a conductive, self-doping and biodegradable oligoEDOT-heparin biomaterial will be synthesized and studied on in vitro and in vivo cardiac infarct models. The conductive EDOT oligomer moiety is envisaged to act as an electrical sink to shield the cardiac tissue from mismatched electromechanical impulses, while heparin will facilitate cardiac cell support and loading of regenerative factors, besides its recently documented doping capacity. The results of this fellowship are expected to overcome low cell retention and graft-induced arrhythmia, two of the biggest obstacles for translation in cardiac cell therapy, but also contribute with new insights regarding conductivity in materials and biological systems, to multiple fields of materials chemistry, medicine and bioelectronics. The world-class academic environment, collaborations and combined interdisciplinary expertise in biomaterials and cardiovascular sciences make the proposed fellowship activities ideally placed for enhancing my career prospects and consolidating my host and Europe in a leading position for translational research.

Wissenschaftliches Gebiet

Programm/Programme

Thema/Themen

MSCA-IF-2018 - Individual Fellowships

Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung

H2020-MSCA-IF-2018

Andere Projekte für diesen Aufruf anzeigen

Finanzierungsplan

MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

Koordinator

IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE

Netto-EU-Beitrag

€ 224 933,76

Adresse

South kensington campus exhibition road
SW7 2AZ London
Vereinigtes Königreich

Region

London Inner London — West Westminster

Aktivitätstyp

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Links

Die Organisation kontaktieren Website

Teilnahme an EU-FuI-Programmen

HORIZON-Kooperationsnetzwerk

Weitere Finanzmittel

€ 0,00