Description du projet
Mesurer le potentiel d’action dans des milliers de cellules simultanément rationalise les études d’innocuité cardiaque
Le criblage à haut débit a révolutionné la découverte de médicaments et les tests de toxicité. Cependant, déterminer l’innocuité cardiaque de médicaments potentiels reste un processus long et coûteux, en temps comme en argent, commençant par des tests sur des lignées cellulaires, suivis de simulations informatiques et, enfin, d’essais sur l’homme. Le projet MAREP, financé par l’UE, prévoit de proposer une alternative rapide, automatisée et abordable. Les scientifiques ont élaboré une plateforme qui permet l’enregistrement simultané des potentiels d’action de milliers de cellules cardiaques en culture en réponse à l’administration de médicaments. Elle pourrait simplifier considérablement le processus d’élaboration des médicaments et améliorer la sécurité des patients.
Objectif
Due to the vital role of the heart, cardiac safety assessment has become one of the major gatekeepers in all stages of the drug development process, increasing costs and resources required for new drugs. Despite the recent advancements of the Comprehensive In vitro ProArrhythmia (CiPA) initiative, there are still important obstacles related to chronic cardiotoxicities and to unreliable cell models. Thus, there is a strong need for new solutions that can improve the efficacy of drug development processes.
The MAREP project aims at tackling this problem by demonstrating a novel automated system for the comprehensive pharmacologic investigation of drug effects on in-vitro cardiac cell cultures. The novel approach combines laser excitation of novel metamaterials with high density multielectrode arrays (HD-MEA), providing high quality and high throughput recording of cardiac cells activity and offering an unprecedented and affordable method for the global study of drug effects on the heart. The outcome of the project is the prototype of a system that combines electrical recording of action potentials of thousands of cardiac cells with laser-based cell poration and intracellular recording. In essence, cardiac cells can be investigated in physiological conditions while drugs are administered and their effects studied in details on a large and reliable biological sample. The MAREP technology will boost the development of new drugs through the establishment of a novel, affordable, cost-effective and automated experimental procedure.
This project intends to exploit a research innovation born, though not exploited, in the parent ERC project Neuro-plasmonics.
This innovation may bring the laser-based bio-nanotechnologies developed in Neuro-plasmonics closer to commercialization
by introducing a novel interface that is fully compatible with standard CMOS technology and with large scale production.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-POC-LS - ERC Proof of Concept Lump Sum PilotInstitution d’accueil
16163 Genova
Italie