Prof. Victor F. Puntes Secures Funding from 'la Caixa' Foundation to Advance Treatment of Arteriovenous Malformations

by Chema Arcos

The project, led by Dr Marc Ribó from the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), is one of the selected initiatives in the CaixaResearch Health Research Call 2024 and will receive over €990,000.

The 'la Caixa' Foundation has announced the new biomedical research projects of excellence selected in the CaixaResearch Health Research Call 2024. This initiative will fund 29 biomedical research projects with great potential for social impact, from more than 500 proposals, to be carried out in hospitals, universities and research centres in Spain and Portugal.

The call, with a total budget of more than 25 million euros, aims to address health challenges in several areas: infectious diseases, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and neurosciences. One of the selected projects, "Improving Brain Arteriovenous Malformation Cure with Local Antioncogenic Nanoparticle Embolization", led by Dr Marc Ribó (VHIR), will include the participation of ICREA Prof. Victor F. Puntes, head of the ICN2 Inorganic Nanoparticles Group. The project will also involve the researchers Prof. Susana Amézqueta (Universitat de Barcelona, UB) and Dr Fernanda da Silva Andrade (CIBER-BBN).

About the project

The project aims to identify new targets for treating cerebral arteriovenous malformations, which are a leading cause of stroke in children and young adults and are associated with high rates of mortality and disability. Currently available treatments focus on closing the abnormal blood vessels using an embolic fluid that acts as a glue.

However, it has recently been discovered that in people with this condition, the epithelial cells responsible for lining the blood vessels often have mutations in some oncogenes (genes involved in the proliferation of tumour cells). For this reason, the researchers in this project seek to use nanotechnology to introduce specific inhibitors of oncogenes into the embolic fluid to induce the death of these abnormal blood vessels without damaging healthy tissue.

In short, the goal of the project is to use these mutations in cerebral arteriovenous malformations as a target for new therapies. These therapies would provide a more effective and less invasive treatment option with fewer side effects.