Project description
Your gastrointestinal inhabitants may indirectly modulate hypertension
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion people globally have hypertension (high blood pressure) and fewer than 20 % of them have it under control. Hypertension can cause damage to numerous organs, including the heart, kidneys, brain and eyes, and it is a major cause of premature death. Scientists have recently shown a link between dietary salt intake and hypertension that is mediated by an immune response regulated by gut microbiota. The EU-funded HyperBiota project is untangling the complicated pathway from diet to immunity to hypertension with the goal of enabling personalised hypertension therapy based on microbiome-related immunonutrition. Aside from treating hypertension, it could significantly decrease hypertension-associated organ damage.
Objective
Essential hypertension damages organs such as the kidney, thereby leading to premature death. Beyond elevated blood pressure, hypertension is characterized by a pro-inflammatory immune response ahead of measurable organ damage. Activated immune cells infiltrate the kidney to cause tissue injury. However, inflammation is insufficiently addressed by today’s drugs. Current treatments do not include the gut microbiota, its metabolites and the associated lymphoid tissue – the largest immune cell reservoir in the body. We have recently shown for the first time that variations in dietary salt intake promote hypertension by modulating the immune system via the microbiota and its metabolites. Thus, the diet-microbiota axis is an important modulator of the immune response in hypertension. HyperBiota envisions a personalized, microbiome-guided immunonutrition for anti-inflammatory immunomodulation and organ protection in hypertension. It will explore the interplay between diet-dependent microbial metabolism in the intestine and the immune system in hypertension. By using an interdisciplinary approach, HyperBiota aims to 1) decipher the reciprocity of dietary composition, microbial community structure and metabolism, and immune response in hypertension. The identification of critical dietary and microbial components will enable targeted interventions. 2) Particular attention will be payed to worsening kidney function and how this affects microbial ecology and immune cell homeostasis. 3) It will investigate the extent to which the gut-associated lymphoid tissue contributes to the immune response in hypertension and its responsiveness to targeted interventions. 4) Knowledge gained in model systems will be translated and verified in mice associated with human microbial communities. Taking this approach, HyperBiota will cross borders and take a systems view on inflammation in hypertension to enable microbiome-guided immunonutrition for organ protection in hypertension.
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Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
10117 Berlin
Germany