Researcher

Britt Opdebeeck

Research Expertise:Arterial media calcification is a severe cardiovascular complication in elderly and patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes and osteoporosis. This disease is a master of camouflage by disguising itself as physiological bone mineralization, which makes it extremely difficult to find efficient and safe therapies against it, i.e. without affecting bone metabolism. The more as CKD and osteoporosis patients already suffer from bone mineralization defects. We have shown for the first time that the ATP analogue β,γ-meATP completely prevented all calcification in vascular smooth muscle cell cultures and efficiently prevented the development of arterial media calcification in rats, however also provoked deleterious effects on bone mineralization. Also other studies performed in the Laboratory of Pathophysiology showed repeatedly that compounds targeting arterial media calcification compromises physiological bone mineralization. Therefore, we focus on developing a Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PGLA) nanoparticle conjugated to anti-elastin antibody drug delivery system to target β,γ-meATP selectively to the blood vessels, bypassing the bone compartment, and increase its bioavailability. PGLA nanoparticles have a high biocompatibility and biodegradability and are FDA approved for human therapy. The nanoparticles will be tested on in vitro and in vivo arterial calcification models.

Disciplines:Cardiac and vascular medicine, Molecular and cell biology, Urology and nephrology

Research techniques:- in vitro models (rat/mouse/human vascular smooth muscle cell cultures) - in vivo models (mouse knockout models, rat/mouse models for arterial calcification) - nanoparticle synthesis/analysis: double emulsion method, zetasizer, IVIS - analysis of mineralization in the vessels and bone by flame atomic absorption spectrometry and histomorphometric methods - pulse wave velocity measurement through ultrasound of the abdominal aorta of rats - mRNA/protein expression profiles of tissues by qPCR, western blot and proteomics.

Users of research expertise:Academic and industrial researchers in the field of cardiovascular, bone and chronic kidney disease.