MiNeMI

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading global cause of death, being ischemic heart disease one of the deadliest. To date, the conventional therapeutics only ameliorate the state of care of myocardial infarction (MI) patients, and no approved therapy has been developed for heart scars. Promising approaches might come based on the latest knowledge on new pathophysiological concepts, e.g. on the inflammation and immune responses upon MI. The inflammatory phase on MI presents itself as a therapeutic opportunity, with immunomodulation for heart regeneration showing great promise for MI treatment. Thereby, MiNeMI aims to answer the question if it is possible to modulate the immune system to regulate inflammation and promote heart regeneration through a non-invasive approach. To this end, MiNeMI will, for the first time, develop a novel and unique double-layer biodegradable non-invasive microneedle (MN)-assisted nanovector skin patch, loaded with both immunomodulatory and biologic (cytokines, proteins, and extracellular vesicles) cargos to be tested in a myocardial infarction (MI) disease model. The MN-patch approach proposed here will deliver the cargos into the dermal layer of the skin, a reservoir of immune cells, and will revolutionize the way to regulate the inflammatory systemic immune response upon cardiac ischemia. This MN-assisted nanovector skin patch will be fully characterized in vitro for immune and cardiac effects and also tested in animal MI disease models.

2020

2022