CA16225 - Realising the therapeutic potential of novel cardioprotective therapies (EU-CARDIOPROTECTION)

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and the heart failure that often follows are the leading causes of death and disability in Europe. As such, new treatments are required to protect the heart against acute ischaemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) in order to preserve cardiac function and prevent heart failure – a strategy termed ‘Cardioprotection’. Despite intensive research, there are currently no effective cardioprotective therapies in clinical practice. The challenge has been to successfully translate novel cardioprotective therapies discovered in the laboratory setting into the clinical setting.

This EU-CARDIOPROTECTION COST ACTION will address this challenge by setting up a pan-European Research Network of leading experts in cardioprotection, to jointly develop innovative strategies for translating novel cardioprotective therapies into the clinical setting for patient benefit. This will be achieved through 4 main objectives each linked to a WORKING GROUP [WG]:

(1) To use innovative strategies to discover novel targets for cardioprotection (WG1:NEW TARGETS).

(2) To investigate the effects of combination therapy directed to multiple targets as an innovative cardioprotective strategy (WG2:COMBINATION THERAPY).

(3) To use more clinically relevant animal models for testing novel cardioprotective therapies taking into account the confounding effects of co-morbidities and co-medication (WG3:CONFOUNDERS).

(4) To set up a European network of research centers (European Cardioprotection Consortium, ECC) for: (a) Multi-center preclinical testing of novel cardioprotective therapies using small/large animal models of acute myocardial IRI; and (b) Proof-of-concept clinical testing of novel cardioprotective therapies in AMI patients (WG4:CONSORTIUM).

The EU-CARDIOPROTECTION COST ACTION aims to improve the translation of novel cardioprotective therapies for patient benefit.