Project description
Cardiac evaluation of young athletes
Intense physical exercise and training can lead to the development of life-threatening arrhythmias, which can result in sudden cardiac death. Unfortunately, our understanding of how exercise triggers pathogenic QT prolongation and arrhythmias is currently lacking. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PREPARE project aims to evaluate potential risks for young athletes. The project leverages the recent discovery of exercise-induced long QT syndrome and adopts a precision medicine approach to identify the molecular culprits behind it. It will use in-vitro modelling, employing athlete-specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte models, along with statistical data including genetic, electrophysiological, and molecular information. This approach will improve risk assessment and clinical management of arrhythmias in young athletes.
Objective
Regular physical activity is known to be beneficial for health, can prevent cardiovascular disease and reduce overall mortality. However, high intensity exercise can promote the development of arrhythmias and cause sudden cardiac death. Recently the Prof.Peter Schwartz’s group discovered the phenomenon of exercise-induced Long QT Syndrome (exiLQTS). Affected athletes develop significant QT interval prolongation and repolarization abnormalities on the electrocardiogram during training periods and normalisation occurs during detraining. Clinically, these athletes resemble patients with congenital LQTS, who are known to be severely at risk for life-threatening arrhythmias, but no pathogenic genetic variants in main genes responsible for LQTS were found. Data on how exercise could trigger pathogenic QT prolongation and arrhythmias is limited and thus the possibilities to evaluate potential risks and prevent sudden cardiac death in these young athletes are currently absent. This project will use a precision medicine approach to reveal molecular culprits of exiLQTS by:
i) demonstrating that the disease could be recapitulated in vitro using athlete-specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes models;
ii) creating a statistical model integrating genetic, electrophysiological, and molecular data;
iii) discovering major factors responsible for exiLQTS development and identifying molecular targets for risk stratification and therapy.
Results of the study will shed the light on mysterious exercise-related QT prolongation and will contribute to better risk assessment and clinical management of arrhythmias in young athletes.
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 clinical medicine cardiology cardiovascular diseases cardiac arrhythmia
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
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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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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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
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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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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20145 MILANO
Italy
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