Spain Challenges Heart Failure With Biomarkers

Biomarkers have become widely used in the treatment of heart failure. As we better understand the role of biomarkers, their use has begun to spread. It is now common that biomarkers are used in hospitals to track the progress of heart failure therapies.

Oriol Iborra, biologist and geneticist at the Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol and board member at the Catalan Society of Biology, works on this field. With his colleagues from the ICREC lab, he is also offering services for genetic and proteic bioinformatic analysis. Scientist asks him a few questions to better understand the activities led by his lab.

Is the heart failure an important societal challenge?

Heart failure is a major and growing public health problem worldwide. In the United States, approximately 5 million patients have heart failure, and more than 550,000 are diagnosed with heart failure for the first time each year. This disorder is the primary reason for 12 to 15 million office visits and 6.5 million hospital days each year.

Heart failure is primarily a condition of the elderly. But the aging of the population also contributes to the increased heart failure incidence. Furthermore, heart failure is the most common Medicare diagnosis-related group, and more Medicare money is spent on heart failure diagnosis and treatment.

What do you to address the heart failure (HF) situation?

The HF Unit of the Hospital Universitari Germans Triasi Pujol (HUGTP) is a pioneer in the set-up of multidisciplinary HF Units in Spain. It started to run in August 2001 and combines both assistance and research. More than 2,000 patients have been admitted in the HF Unit and the currently active set of patients is around 800 patients and 9,000 visits. The Unit has proven to be valuable to reduce hospital admissions, to improve patient HF knowledge and self-care behavior as well as the quality of life.

Over the last 15 years, the ICREC group has gained extensive experience in the field of cell-based therapy, tissue engineering, and extracellular vesicles. We have joined national and international scientific communities in the search of a variety of very attractive regenerative strategies. It ranges from the conventional use of several lineages of stem cells to innovative tissue engineering approaches combining stem cells, natural and synthetic materials, growth factors and advanced monitoring devices.

Tell us more about your lab.

The Hospital HUGTP is one of the large university hospitals in the area of Barcelona, Spain. It is a referral center for high-tech care for 820,000 citizens in the surrounding areas. It also has an associated center devoted to research, the “ Fundació Institut d’Investigació en Ciències de las Salut Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP)”.

We created the iCor (Institute of the Heart)to include resources and talent to boost cardiovascular investigation and clinical options. The main focus of the iCor Institute is to study new biomarkers for cardiac diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and therapy-guidance. It also aims to put forward biotherapies for the treatment of the injured heart. The research team is known as ICREC Research Lab.

Recently, the iCor has developed a Heart Precision Medicine Platform, as an innovative opportunity to improve diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring and therapeutic guidance of HF patients in a strictly customized way.

Of note, the clinical team of the iCor involves 8 cardiologists and one surgeon. Moreover, the team has become a leader in several areas of study, particularly in HF.

The basic research team is consolidated with accreditation by the local government (Generalitat de Catalunya) since 2009. It comprises 7 investigators, a technician, and a project coordinator. All with great experience in cell culture and processing histopathological samples, molecular biology, immunohistochemistry, and confocal microscopy techniques, from different scientific areas such as biochemistry, biology, biotechnology, veterinary and pharmacy.

We have extensive experience in the murine and porcine models both performing infarcts by coronary artery ligation after thoracotomy or by angioplasty. During our scientific investigation activity, we have received R+D grants at National and European level.

What services does your lab offer?

As for now, we can support other groups with our knowledge on clinical trials management, in biomarker research, iPSC research, exosomes… as well as offer an externalized platform of in silicon analysis for genetic and proteic bioinformatic analysis.

It includes the integration of the data with systems biology. Soon we will also be able to externalize our service of precision medicine analysis (mostly biomarker-related research) and 3D bioprinting assistance.

If you are interested in knowing more about the ICREC group’s offer, visit its profile.

What sets your expertise apart from others?

We have 15 years of creditable experience in cardiology and cell biology. We also have a dedicated platform specifically for biomarker research. Without forgetting our large experience in bioinformatics and systems biology analysis.

What challenges are you willing to address in the future?

Currently, we have 3 main ongoing projects.

1. First, we are in the latest stage of the first-in-man trial for cardiac cell therapy using tissue engineering. It is the culmination of a 10-year research evolution, from deciding the optimal cell type and its characterization to generating the best suitable scaffold for their delivery.
2. Secondly, we have a proteomics study in which our precision medicine platform is the leading player. It involves multicentric cohorts and the latest key biomarkers in heart failure.
3. Finally, we have a collaboration with a European leading center for iPSC research. We try to greatly enhance the potential use of these cells in pre-clinical studies.

Moreover, we have several “secondary” projects including bioinformatics, systems biology, cell biology, proteomics, and exosomes.

What do you expect from Scientist?

We hope to connect with kindred labs with innovative ideas to further internationalize our research. Also, we expect to find potential translational opportunities with groups from different fields (mostly engineering and data scientists). This could allow breakthrough advances to help aid the patients’ needs.

If you are interested in knowing more about the ICREC group, visit its profile.