The Bristol team are part of the MRC/BHF funded CoRE in Advanced Cardiac Therapies Centre. Co-funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and involving scientists from King’s College London (KCL), Edinburgh, Oxford and Bristol, the Centre will focus on developing and testing new gene therapies for heart disease.
The aim is to discover and target key processes within the heart tissue, which can stimulate the proliferation of heart muscle cells, encourage the growth of new blood vessels, and counteract the formation of scars.
Researchers from KCL, Edinburgh and Oxford plan to achieve this using therapies based on nucleic acids — the building blocks of our genetic material DNA and RNA. These will include mRNA, similar to the cutting-edge techniques in the Covid-19 vaccines, and small regulatory RNAs. These will be identified through genetic screening. The project plan is to use viral and non-viral based technologies to deliver these therapeutic DNAs and RNAs into the cells of the heart with a view to alter the cell’s functions, for example to switch a function on or off, or to stimulate cardiac cell regeneration.
Bristol’s heart scientists will undertake advanced testing of the most promising of these discoveries at its Translational Biomedical Research Centre (TBRC), the only UK-based large animal preclinical facility MHRA compliant for toxicology and medical device testing. The focus will be to generate high-quality feasibility and safety data allowing one or more novel therapies, tested in models of heart attack or heart failure, to receive regulatory approval for clinical trials during the first seven years of the programme.
Professor Mauro Giacca, Head of the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, at KCL will lead the Centre. He said: “There is a tremendous need for new therapies for heart failure and we’re now at an exciting moment when the technologies have really progressed to an extent where we can realistically start to develop gene therapies. This could be transformational for heart disease treatment.”
Raimondo Ascione, Professor of Cardiac Surgery and Translational Research and Director of TBRC at Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences (THS), NHS Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at the University Hospital Bristol Weston NHS Foundation Trust and the project’s Bristol’s lead, added: “Rigorous preclinical testing is vital to ensure the safety of new therapeutics and to obtain regulatory approval before they can be given to patients. This major national award highlights our unique expertise at the frontline of biomedical innovation, to help delivering new heart treatments to patients in the NHS.”
The researchers will work closely with industry partners to collaborate on tasks, such as screening libraries for therapy targets and accessing gene therapy delivery technologies, and with a large venture capital firm in London to drive further investment and progress toward application in patients.
The MRC’s new CoRE funding model aims to transform biomedical and health research by revolutionising approaches to prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases by bringing together the very best researchers to tackle the challenge, wherever they are based. In addition, the Centres will be beacons of excellence driving positive changes in research culture, and in training the next generation of pioneers in the field.