ALGORITM | Applying human lung tissue models to develop a personalised treatment for critically ill

Summary
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a major cause of mortality in the critically ill patients with no effective pharmacological treatment. Recently, two distinct endotypes of ARDS were identified and validated in four large randomized controlled trials: a hyper-inflammatory and a hypo-inflammatory endotype. These endotypes have strikingly different clinical characteristics, biomarker profiles, clinical outcomes, and treatment responses. While these data are highly promising, the biology of these endotypes is not understood. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) hold significant therapeutic promise for ARDS and are rapidly progressing to clinical trials across the world. However, concern for the use of stem cells, specifically the risk of tumor formation, remains unresolved. Accumulating evidence suggests that MSCs exert their therapeutic benefit through the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs). MSC EVs are being actively developed as a cell free therapy for ARDS, but for the effective clinical translation it is important to establish EV therapeutic potential for both biological endotypes of patients. In this project, I am going to use cutting edge technology and employ the most physiological human lung tissue models to date to study the biology of ARDS endotypes and to test therapeutic potential of MSC EVs. The main objectives are: i) To reveal how endotype–specific environments alter human lung tissue and how these changes are affected by EV treatment at a single cell level, using single cell RNA-Seq transcriptomic profiling of precision-cut human lung tissue slices, ii) to study how endotype-specific environments (with or without EV treatment) alter functional properties of the alveolar epithelial-endothelial barrier using lung-on-a-chip microfluidic model, iii) to study how endotype-specific environments (with or without EVs) alter metabolism of the primary human pulmonary cells involved in ARDS pathophysiology using Seahorse Metabolic Analyser.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/895134
Start date: 01-04-2021
End date: 31-03-2023
Total budget - Public funding: 212 933,76 Euro - 212 933,00 Euro
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Original description

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a major cause of mortality in the critically ill patients with no effective pharmacological treatment. Recently, two distinct endotypes of ARDS were identified and validated in four large randomized controlled trials: a hyper-inflammatory and a hypo-inflammatory endotype. These endotypes have strikingly different clinical characteristics, biomarker profiles, clinical outcomes, and treatment responses. While these data are highly promising, the biology of these endotypes is not understood. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) hold significant therapeutic promise for ARDS and are rapidly progressing to clinical trials across the world. However, concern for the use of stem cells, specifically the risk of tumor formation, remains unresolved. Accumulating evidence suggests that MSCs exert their therapeutic benefit through the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs). MSC EVs are being actively developed as a cell free therapy for ARDS, but for the effective clinical translation it is important to establish EV therapeutic potential for both biological endotypes of patients. In this project, I am going to use cutting edge technology and employ the most physiological human lung tissue models to date to study the biology of ARDS endotypes and to test therapeutic potential of MSC EVs. The main objectives are: i) To reveal how endotype–specific environments alter human lung tissue and how these changes are affected by EV treatment at a single cell level, using single cell RNA-Seq transcriptomic profiling of precision-cut human lung tissue slices, ii) to study how endotype-specific environments (with or without EV treatment) alter functional properties of the alveolar epithelial-endothelial barrier using lung-on-a-chip microfluidic model, iii) to study how endotype-specific environments (with or without EVs) alter metabolism of the primary human pulmonary cells involved in ARDS pathophysiology using Seahorse Metabolic Analyser.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

MSCA-IF-2019

Update Date

28-04-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.1. EXCELLENT SCIENCE
H2020-EU.1.3. EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
H2020-EU.1.3.2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
MSCA-IF-2019