These types of conditions are responsible for 25% of all UK deaths and affect 7.6 million people nationally.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF), the Dutch Heart Foundation and the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research have awarded four international research teams £4.7m for research in heart and circulatory diseases.
Over four years, researchers from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands will drive breakthroughs in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.
Responsible for 25% of all deaths in the UK, heart and circulatory diseases affect around 7.6 million people nationally.
Researchers from the University of Bristol, Maastricht University Medical Center, the University of Birmingham, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Amsterdam University Medical Center (Amsterdam UMC), the University of Cambridge, Universiteit Leiden, King’s College London (KCL) and University Medical Center Goettingen (UMC Goettingen) have been selected to be funded through the International Cardiovascular Research Partnership Awards.
The projects will investigate different areas, including the use of placentas to understand heart and circulatory disease risks in women who develop high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia during pregnancy, as well as the role of heart muscle fibres in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an inherited disease that affects the heart’s ability to pump blood.
Investigators from Cambridge and the Netherlands plan to unlock the potential of immune cells to combat atherosclerosis, inflammation within arteries that makes plaques grow, to understand more about the effects of an anti-inflammatory drug called interleukin-2.
Principal investigators Dr Joseph Burgoyne from KCL, Dr Lukas Cyganek from UMC Goettingen and Amsterdam UMC’s Dr Monika Gladka have been awarded almost £450,000 to investigate how faulty genes that cause dilated cardiomyopathy – when the muscular walls of the heart stretch – weaken the function of heart muscles, to “gain a better understanding of the key processes that cause this condition” and to “aid the development of new, more advanced therapies,” explained Burgoyne.
Professor Metin Avkiran, associate medical director at BHF, commented: “Through this funding, we can help… cement collaborations between future research leaders that will continue to reap rewards long after these projects have finished.”
