Descripción del proyecto
Enfoque de tratamiento avanzado para los trastornos cerebrales
Casi 83 millones de europeos sufren trastornos cerebrales, lo que hace que su coste sea enorme. Los trastornos cerebrales incluyen enfermedades neurodegenerativas, como la enfermedad de Alzheimer y la enfermedad de Parkinson, y otros trastornos como la epilepsia, la depresión, el accidente cerebrovascular y la migraña. Estos desafíos para la salud requieren un nuevo enfoque y una nueva tecnología. El proyecto NEUROPA, financiado con fondos europeos, responde a esta necesidad. Desarrollará una nueva tecnología fitoptogenética en la que los fitocromos permitirán modular la expresión de genes concretos que se dirigen de forma selectiva y no invasiva a las neuronas corticales de bucles corticales y subcorticales concretos. Se desarrollarán fuentes de láser compactas y sistemas de supervisión por espectroscopia de onda difusa para permitir el control bidireccional no invasivo de los fitocromos mediante excitación bifotónica.
Objetivo
Europe faces an enormous human toll of brain disorders, with an estimated 83 million people affected, and economic costs amounting to approximately €800 billion. Drug treatments for brain disorders prove often less than effective with a lack of selective cell targeting. A failure to develop new drugs has led major Pharmaceutical companies to withdraw from CNS drug development in recent years. Methods such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or Deep Brain Stimulation have displayed some therapeutic efficacy, however they are non-selective and/or invasive. It is therefore clear that with a failure of conventional therapy, a new approach is necessary, and development of new technology.
NEUROPA will directly tackle this issue. An ideal treatment would be one where activity in specific implicated neuronal networks could be selectively modulated. To be relevant to human disorders the therapy should enable the long-term modulation of dysfunctional networks. For potential widespread use in patients the intervention and monitoring of effects on network activity should also be non-invasive. NEUROPA will develop a new Phytoptogenetics technology: novel Phytochromes that will enable modulation of expression of specific genes, selectively and non-invasively delivered and targeted to cortical neurons in specific cortico-subcortical loops. Novel compact laser sources and a Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy monitoring system will be developed to enable non-invasive bidirectional control of the phytochromes by two-photon excitation.
NEUROPA will achieve in-lab technology validation of long-term network activity modulation and behavioural symptom alleviation in Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease mouse models. To achieve this, we have assembled a consortium of phytochrome engineering, gene delivery, laser photonics and detection experts, cellular, in vivo and behavioural neuroscientists, together with drug discovery expertise. We envisage progress to human use within 15 years.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01
Régimen de financiación
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinador
B4 7ET Birmingham
Reino Unido