RESEarch for healThy AGEING

Project Information

RESETageing

Grant agreement ID: 952266

DOI

10.3030/952266

Project closed

EC signature date 10 June 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 30 June 2024

Funded under

• Twinning of research institutions

Total cost

€ 899 971,25

EU contribution

€ 899 971,25

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RESETageing (RESEarch for healThy AGEING)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2024-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

As the human expectancy within the European Union continues to increase, the impact of chronic diseases and their dependencies also increase leading to an enormous burden to individuals and to societies. The healthy life expectancy, which is the number of years spent free of disabilities, grows much slower than life expectancy, and this growing has been inequal between EU countries, being Portugal one of the countries where the healthy life expectancy growing has been less significant.

To reduce these gaps in healthy life expectancy, interventions that increase healthy ageing are needed and probably are the most promising potential to relieve individual suffering as well as the enormous strain on public finances.

RESETageing project aims at enhancing the scientific and innovation competences of University of Coimbra (UC), Portugal, a low-performing partner, in the area of cardiovascular ageing, with three high performing partners, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UNEW), United Kingdom (ageing biology), the University of Maastricht (UM), Netherlands (cardiovascular biology) and the Leibniz Institute on Aging– Fritz Lipmann Institute (LIA), Germany (omics).

The objectives of RESETageing project are to stimulate the excellency in research, training and value creation in the area of ageing.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Results achieved:
- Identification of senolytic and senostatic drugs by high-throughput screenings using aged cardiac and vascular tissues as platforms;
- Identification of cellular targets for senescence elimination and use of nanoformulations for the release of anti-senescence drugs;
- demonstration of the key role of dysfunctional mitophagy as a driver of the senescence phenotypes
- demonstration of some mechanisms in the communication between senescent cells and proliferative cells.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Understanding the mechanisms controlling the transition of physiologically normal cells to the senescent state is essential for the development of therapeutic strategies aiming to delay an onset of ageing and age-related diseases. We are studying the effect of the anti-senescence drugs in the senescence program and the characterization of their mechanism of action.
Our data indicate that the loss of mitophagy is sufficient to trigger cellular senescence, therefore activation of mitophagy is required for the anti-senescence effect of pharmacological interventions.
EVs play a major role in cardiac communication, representing an essential mechanism to maintain heart homeostasis.

Snapshot of the virtual reality video about ageing. See the full video at www.resetageing.eu

Snapshot of the virtual reality video about ageing. See the full video at www.resetageing.eu

RESETageing logo