Project description
Enhanced cell therapy for osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis, a painful condition, affects the protective cartilage providing a smooth and slippery interface at bone joints. This cartilage gradually deteriorates, leaving bone to rub on bone. Intra-articular injections of multipotent stem cells have shown the most promise in treating the disease. However, the physiological saline in which the cells are delivered to the joints has not adequately fostered successful transplantation. The EU-funded project BABHY-CART is providing a friendlier microenvironment for the cells. It will mimic their natural environment, encouraging them to thrive and release anti-osteoarthritic factors in vivo.
Objective
Osteoarthritis (OA) is an incurable and painful disease. Over 70 million Europeans are currently affected by OA – a number that is set to increase with aging population and prevalence of obesity. To date, no clinically-efficient therapy exists to treat this socioeconomically debilitating disease. In this context, innovative regenerative therapies for joints are a pressing medical challenge.
Intraarticular mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) injections hold the great promise of stopping and reversing age-associated inflammation and degeneration of joints by providing the necessary trophic factors to mitigate immune responses. However, translational progress using conventional cell delivery (saline) has been seriously hampered by the limited control over cell survival, location and fate in damaged joints. It is now common knowledge that cell microenvironment plays a crucial role in the success of cell transplantation; and appropriate synthetic matrix design is key to success.
To address challenges in intraarticular MSC-based immunomodulation strategies, we have envisioned an original hydrogel-assisted cell therapy. In this strategy, an injectable hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hydrogel with long-lasting viscoelastic properties will allow MSC encapsulation and cytoprotection, ensuring the production of anti-OA soluble factors in vivo. To best mimic synovial environment and support MSCs in vivo, we will synthesize a novel boronic acid-based, self-healing HA hydrogel with unique properties of injectability, stability and fast relaxation under mechanical load.
After carefully characterizing the physicochemical properties of this new class of biomaterials, we will investigate the effects of cell encapsulation on adipose stromal cell (ASC) survival, morphology and factor secretion. Then, the preclinical efficacy of intraarticular injections of cell-loaded, self-healing hydrogels will be confirmed in two complementary OA mice models.
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.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine transplantation
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology biomaterials
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology cells technologies
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition obesity
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
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.
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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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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) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75654 Paris
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.