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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Four teams of leading scientists from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands will collaborate on projects to accelerate progress in the detection and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The British Heart Foundation (BHF), the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) and the Dutch Heart Foundation (DHF) have awarded 5.3 million euros over four years.
Embargoed until Thursday 16th February 2023, 01:00hrs (CET)
This is the fourth time the European funders are working together and joining forces: In four projects, teams with scientists from the different countries are researching heart failure, atherosclerosis, heart failure in pulmonary hypertension and analysing thousands of proteins to predict the probability of a heart attack or stroke. The current funding round was specifically aimed at mid-career scientists.
Professor Stefanie Dimmeler, spokesperson of the DZHK Board of Directors says:
“Still, most people in Germany and worldwide die of cardiovascular diseases. One country alone cannot solve the problems of cardiovascular medicine. If we combine our resources and work together internationally, we will reach our common goal faster - to better treat or even cure cardiovascular diseases.“
Researchers from the DZHK are involved in all projects. These four projects were selected:
PLAK-TALK – Understanding cell-to-cell communication to prevent heart attack- and stroke-causing arterial blockages
Specific cells in the immune system which cause inflammation are known to increase the risk of “fatty plaques” developing in arteries that are likely to rupture and cause a clot that blocks blood flow to the heart or brain. The PLAK-TALK team will study how specific immune cells called T cells communicate with other cells in protective ‘caps’ covering fatty plaques, to regulate the caps’ stability. These new insights could help design new treatments to ultimately prevent plaques from rupturing and breaking off, and stop devastating heart attacks and strokes from striking.
Professor Lars Maegdefessel, Technical University Munich; Dr Jason Tarkin, University of Cambridge; Professor Marit Westerterp, University Medical Center Groningen.
PROMETHEUS – Revealing genetic clues for why some hearts are unable to adapt to dangerously high blood pressure in the lungs.
Failure of the right side of the heart to function as it should is the leading cause of death in people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a condition where blood pressure in lung arteries is dangerously high. The right main chamber of the heart, which pumps blood through lung arteries, needs to adapt to pumping against the high pressure that it encounters in people with PAH. However, for unknown reasons, the hearts of some patients with PAH are unable to adapt and this can lead to right heart failure. This suggests that that genetic variants may determine the adaptation capacity of the right heart. In addition, cardiac alterations in PAH are not limited to the right side of the heart. Left ventricle – which supplies systemic blood circulation – can be significantly impaired in PAH, making this condition significantly demanding for the heart and the body in general. The PROMETHEUS team will investigate specific genetic differences that might determine the right heart’s ability to adapt to pressure overload, to help find new ways of preventing heart failure in PAH.
Professor Soni Pullamsetti, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research; Dr Gabriele Schiattarella, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Dr Frances S. de Man, Amsterdam University Medical Center Dr Andrew Swift, University of Sheffield.
Prot4CVD – Protein deep-dive to improve cardiovascular disease risk prediction and management
Cardiovascular diseases, particularly heart attacks and strokes, are the leading cause of death worldwide. The Prot4CVD team plan to analyse measurements of thousands of proteins in blood from 200,000 people, in tandem with their genetic and clinical data, using new computational methods to identify proteins that can help predict the likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke. They also hope to pinpoint proteins that cause people to have heart attacks or strokes, providing ideas for new treatments. These analyses have not been performed at a comparable scale previously and the team expect their findings to help improve the prevention and management of devastating cardiovascular diseases.
Professor Claudia Langenberg, Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH); Professor Adam Butterworth, University of Cambridge.
MegaCardiocyte - Mapping a blood-bone marrow-heart axis to identify new drug targets for heart failure
Heart failure is a debilitating and progressive disease that has no cure and is often lethal. For a particular type of heart failure which arises from an impaired ability of the heart’s chambers to relax between beats, abnormal function of small blood vessels is likely to be an important triggering factor. The MegaCardiocyte consortium will explore the link between small blood vessel function and that type of heart failure. They suspect it might be attributed to malfunctioning blood platelets – normally responsible for clotting – that, together with an overactivation of immune cells in the blood, compromise the ability of small blood vessels in the heart to work normally. The work may lead to the development of platelet-targeted treatments in the prevention and management of heart failure.
Dr Tobias Petzold, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich; Professor Steffen Massberg, Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich; Dr Mairi Brittan, University of Edinburgh; Dr Judith Cosemans, CARIM University Maastricht.
To request interviews or for more information please call the DZHK press office on +49 30 3465 52902 or email presse@dzhk.de.
About the British Heart Foundation
It is only with donations from the public that the BHF can keep its life saving research going. Help us turn science fiction into reality. With donations from the public, the BHF funds ground-breaking research that will get us closer than ever to a world free from the fear of heart and circulatory diseases. A world where broken hearts are mended, where millions more people survive a heart attack, where the number of people dying from or disabled by a stroke is slashed in half. A world where people affected by heart and circulatory diseases get the support they need. And a world of cures and treatments we can’t even imagine today. Find out more at bhf.org.uk
About the German Center for Cardiovascular Research
The German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) is one of six German Centers for Health Research established by the German government to combat the major common diseases. The DZHK wants to develop new therapies and diagnostic procedures that impact the lives of people suffering from cardiovascular diseases. To achieve this, the DZHK aims to rapidly and efficiently transfer results from basic research into clinical practice. Therefore, it brings together outstanding basic and clinical researchers from seven sites in Germany. It fosters collaboration between scientists to develop synergies and thus accelerate the process of translation.
About the Dutch Heart Foundation
The Dutch Heart Foundation (DHF) is a Netherlands-based charity that aims to reduce the burden caused by cardiovascular diseases and keep hearts healthy through stimulating collaborations in cardiovascular research and enhancing knowledge and awareness on these devastating diseases. The DHF works together with scientists, physicians, patients, public and private organisations and many volunteers on solutions for the early detection of cardiovascular diseases and better treatments for these diseases. The DHF stimulates research and innovation and provides support and information to (at-risk) patients.
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