R35HL166640

Targeted Immune Therapies in Heart Transplantation - Abstract

Heart transplantation has become the mainstay lifesaving therapeutic strategy for a growing number of patients with irreversible, end-stage heart disease. However, numerous challenges must be met to improve long-term heart allograft rejection. Although immune therapeutics (ITs) used to prevent rejection have improved over time, they are still unable to eliminate acute and chronic rejection effectively.

The use of more intense and potent IT regimens, commonly adopted by transplant programs, can reduce the survival of heart transplant patients by increasing their chances of developing metabolic syndrome, post-transplant malignancy, and serious infection. Therefore, a significant unmet need exists to develop novel and innovative strategies to increase the efficacy of ITs and to reduce their toxicity.

Although targeted drug delivery using nanotechnology or antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) has sparked great interest in the cancer field, its application to transplantation remains to be developed. Over the past several years, we have made major strides to introduce a wide range of targeted therapeutics to the heart transplantation research field.

In transplantation, presentation of donor allo-antigens to recipient T cells in the draining lymph nodes (DLN) is fundamental to the generation of alloreactive T cells that traffic to the allografts and cause rejection. The overall hypothesis of this proposal is that targeted delivery of ITs to the DLN and allografts not only increases the efficacy of ITs but also decreases their toxicity through reduction of their systemic dosage.

In this proposal, we devise a clinically applicable active targeted delivery method for ITs to lymph nodes and organs to promote allograft acceptance in murine models of heart transplantation. We also plan to examine the operating mechanisms that result in prolongation of heart allograft survival by our active targeted delivery platform. These experiments will employ murine heart transplant models, nanoparticle synthesis, advanced antibody-drug conjugation, comprehensive immune phenotyping assays, and sophisticated imaging studies to understand the kinetics of T cell trafficking and payloads in the tissue.

Supported by our extensive expertise, as well as established models, techniques, and data, this multidisciplinary collaborative approach sets forth for the first time a well-balanced, innovative, and clinically applicable targeted delivery platform. The studies proposed here have the potential to yield results that could be paradigm-shifting in our approach to immunosuppressive therapy in transplantation.

Brigham & Womens Hospital

TO FOSTER HEART AND VASCULAR RESEARCH IN THE BASIC, TRANSLATIONAL, CLINICAL AND POPULATION SCIENCES, AND TO FOSTER TRAINING TO BUILD TALENTED YOUNG INVESTIGATORS IN THESE AREAS, FUNDED THROUGH COMPETITIVE RESEARCH TRAINING GRANTS. SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM: TO STIMULATE TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, USE SMALL BUSINESS TO MEET FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT NEEDS, FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION IN INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP BY SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED PERSONS, AND INCREASE PRIVATE-SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUNDING. SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM: TO STIMULATE TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, FOSTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER THROUGH COOPERATIVE R&D BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESSES AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, AND INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL R&D.

93.837 - Cardiovascular Diseases Research

National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) [HHS - NIH]

Boston, Massachusetts 021156110 United States

Single Zip Code

NHLBI Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA) (R35 Clinical Trial Optional) (RFA-HL-23-004)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 197% from $1,050,893 to $3,118,293.