Precision nanomedicine targeting novel endothelial mechano-sensing mechanisms

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PROJECT SUMMARY Endothelial mechano-transduction mechanisms are instrumental to vascular health and disease but targeting disease-causing mechano-sensing pathways remains extremely challenging. For instance, atherosclerosis preferentially develops at arterial curvatures and bifurcations where disturbed blood flow activates endothelium; however, current atherosclerosis therapies mainly target systematic risk factors but not the vasculature per se. This underscores the significance and unique opportunity to identify and target novel mechanosensitive mechanisms in activated endothelium subjected to disturbed flow. This proposal aims to first delineate novel endothelial mechano-sensing mechanisms and moreover, devise innovative precision nanomedicine approaches targeting these disease-causing mechano-sensitive pathways. This R35 mechanism will provide us a unique opportunity to synergistically combine our efforts in endothelial biology (R01 HL136765) and vascular nanomedicine (R01 HL138223), testing paradigm shift hypotheses related to endothelial mechanotransduction and addressing an unmet medical need in vascular therapies. Specifically, seminal work from us and colleagues along with our unpublished data identified three new layers of molecular controls of endothelial mechano-transduction: epi-genome (DNA chemical modification), epi-transcriptome (mRNA chemical modifications) and metabolism (glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation). The overall goals of this project are to 1) identify novel regulators governing the endothelial epi-genomic, epi-transcriptomic, and metabolic responses to blood flow and 2) engineer innovative nanoparticles which target each of these pathways treating vascular complications in vivo. The scientific premise is that innovative nanoparticles can effectively deliver therapeutic nucleotides targeting these mechano-sensitive pathways in activated endothelium. This proposal addresses a significant knowledge gap in endothelial biology and an uncharted territory in vascular medicine, research directions being pursued by only a small number of laboratories world-wide. Our team has laid much the groundwork in developing multidisciplinary knowledge, technologies, and animal models necessary to investigate new endothelial mechanotransduction paradigms and moreover, devise precision nanomedicine strategies for future tailor-made vascular therapies. Successful completion of the proposal will establish a proof of concept of targeted nanomedicine in vascular wall-based therapies. The proposed studies should further preclinical development and eventual clinical testing of new therapeutic strategies to treat vascular diseases.