FSR awards 2 $100K grants to cardiac sarcoidosis research projects
Funding given to researchers at University of Pennsylvania, Duke University
The Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research (FSR) is providing $200,000 in grants to fund research into improving the diagnosis and management of cardiac sarcoidosis.
The funding comprises two grants specific to cardiac sarcoidosis, each totaling $100,000. This is double the investment the FSR made last year in cardiac sarcoidosis research.
One grant was awarded to Eliot Peyster, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The other was given to Ravi Karra, MD, an associate professor of medicine and pathology at Duke University in North Carolina.
“We are thrilled to support these extraordinary projects through FSR’s Cardiac Sarcoidosis Grant,” Mary McGowan, CEO of FSR, said in a foundation press release. “The insights gained from this research have the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis, outcome evaluation, and treatment strategies not only for individuals with cardiac sarcoidosis, but also for a wide range of other inflammatory diseases.”
In sarcoidosis, granulomas, or small clumps of inflammatory immune system cells, build up in tissues. They can affect just one part of the body or develop throughout a number of organs.
When granulomas accumulate in the heart, it’s called cardiac sarcoidosis. Up to 25% of sarcoidosis patients have heart involvement, although only 5% experience heart-related symptoms. The condition can lead to serious complications, including heart failure, abnormal heart rhythms, or sudden cardiac arrest. Symptoms can mimic those of other heart diseases, meaning the condition can go undiagnosed for years.
Improving diagnosis, management of cardiac sarcoidosis
Peyster’s project, titled “Establishing a true gold standard for cardiac sarcoidosis diagnosis with quantitative multi-marker immunofluorescence,” seeks to identify multiple markers of the disease using spatial biology techniques, which will let researchers visualize them within the spatial architecture of cells.
“This generous award from the FSR will enable us to test a novel, modern, and very promising new approach to diagnosing cardiac sarcoidosis,” Peyster said. “The work we will perform as part of this award has the potential to be practice-changing and will hopefully lead to earlier disease detection and better outcomes for patients.”
Karra’s project, titled “Repurposing 99mTc-tilmanocept imaging for cardiac sarcoidosis,” Karra’s project is focused on diagnosing and monitoring cardiac sarcoidosis using a radio-labeled molecule that targets macrophages, a type of immune cell that contributes to granulomas. Sold as Lymphoseek, it’s commonly used to detect lymph nodes in people with solid tumors.
The researchers will test if 99mTc-Tilmanocept-based imaging can help identify areas of active inflammation in the heart as proxies of sarcoidosis granulomas. Current imaging techniques like heart MRIs can’t always differentiate between scar tissue and active inflammation, making it difficult to track disease progression.
“With generous support from the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research, we are excited to test whether an imaging agent specific to macrophages can be used to better diagnose and follow cardiac sarcoidosis,” Karra said. “This work is part of a bench-to-bedside approach from my lab and has the potential to address a significant, unmet need in the field of sarcoidosis.”
FSR has provided more than $7 million in funding to support sarcoidosis research to date.
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