This is a three year project funded by the 2018 Spanish State R&D Program to «Engineer cellular microenvironments to promote synergistic ion channel-integrin mechanotransduction.» The project started in January 2019 and is led by Dr Patricia Rico Tortosa.
We have previously reported on the ability of boron (B) to promote cellular responses, in particular related to muscle regeneration. We have shown that B ions restore dystrophic phenotype in Myotonic Dystrophy (DM1) and induce vascularization, in in vitro models. In this project we study the interaction between the B ion-channel and integrin receptors, and engineer biomaterial systems that simultaneously release or present B and cell adhesion domains, to trigger synergistic signalling for muscle regeneration. Our goal is to validate this strategy as a proof-of-concept in mice models for the treatment of muscular dystrophies (DM1 and Duchenne muscular dystrophy), rare diseases caused by disrupted cell-extra cellular matrix interactions and considered as mechanotransduction disorders.
Papers published with project results