EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Towards innovative strategies for wound healing and extracellular matrix repair.
| THE SILENT EPIDEMIC
Wounds have been called the ‘silent epidemic’ and are in many aspects an under-reported issue. Venous leg ulcers, a major focus of the REMOD-HEALING consortium, affect up to 3% of the adult population worldwide. They share some common mechanisms with other types of chronic wounds that will also directly benefit from our work, e.g. diabetic foot ulcers which develop in 10% of diabetic patients (more than 40 million people worldwide).
Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa is a rare genetic disease, also leading to slow-healing wounds and central to REMOD-HEALING research. Symptom-relieving treatments are critically needed to alleviate the burden of this highly debilitating and deadly disease before gene therapy becomes more widely available.
Finally, the burden of wounds is also high in tropical countries which also have to deal with snake bites, the latter affecting ~2 million people every year and resulting in up to 138,000 deaths and 400,000 cases of morbidity annually. Snake bites are another type of wound that will be studied in the REMOD-HEALING project.
| THE NEED FOR INNOVATION
Existing treatments lack efficiency and emerging advanced wound care products and treatments are at high costs. This represents a significant barrier to accessibility, limiting their availability to many patients in need. The damages resulting from the lack of efficient handling are significant, e.g. long-term impairments, pain, reduced mobility, and an increased risk of infections and complications. These conditions not only diminish the quality of life for patients but also impose a substantial financial burden on healthcare systems due to the need for long-term treatments, frequent medical visits (~50% of nurse visits relate to wounds), and hospitalizations. In addition to the physical symptoms, patients affected by dermatological diseases have to deal with the psychosocial burden of the associated pain and shame.
By generating new knowledge and advancing technologies, the REMOD-HEALING project will contribute to the emergence of effective and affordable solutions for wound diseases, which are able to break the deleterious cycle, reducing the demand for prolonged care and associated resources. This project seeks to lower the overall cost of care, mainly by reducing the time to complete healing, making advanced wound treatments more accessible to a broader population.
THE REMOD-HEALING CONSORTIUM BRINGS TOGETHER COMPLEMENTARY EXPERTISE TO TRANSFORM WOUND CARE THROUGH INNOVATION, ACCESSIBILITY, AND COLLABORATION.
Beyond generating new knowledge on skin wound healing and training the next generation of scientists on wound-related research, our innovative solutions will include:
New biomarker assays and protease probes, leading to the development of rapid tests to predict wound healing progression and detect wound infection.
Novel protease inhibitors and novel applications of existing protease inhibitors to extend the therapeutic solutions in wound management
Overall, this project will help to break the deleterious cycle, reducing the demand for prolonged care and associated resources. By reducing the time to complete healing, it seeks to lower the overall cost of care, making advanced wound treatments more accessible to a broader population.