COST CA-16225 Norwegian Cardioprotection Summit 2019

The meeting "Norwegian Cardioprotection Summit 2019" was held on 16-18.09.2019. The meeting was the fifth meeting of the COST CA16225 "cardioprotection" corporation. There were 84 participants at the meeting, 16 of whom were from Norwegian universities, the rest from Europe and the USA. The main goal of the meeting was to initiate active experimental and clinical collaboration to contribute to the goal of the COST action, which is "realizing the therapeutic potential of novel cardioprotective therapies". The meeting therefore started with a workshop that illustrated how animal models can be made more reliable and valid for research in cardiac protection. The presentations of the following days highlighted various aspects of challenges to understand and transfer cardioprotective mechanisms that have been shown in cell and animal studies to treat humans in a clinical everyday setting. The result of the meeting was that two groups of researchers from Europe were formed to investigate in a multicenter approach 3 different new interventions in (i) rodents and (ii) large animals, i.e. pigs. The results of these studies will form the basis for a multicenter clinical trial.

Acute myocardial infarction still is the leading cause for death and disability in Norway, Europe and the world. The need for new therapies is urgent and this meeting as part of the COST Action EU- CARDIOPROTECTION aimed to increase collaborative research efforts in this field in order to finally achieve translation from experimental settings to clinical studies. Norwegian researchers and clinicians not associated to this COST Action benefited specifically because they met, interacted and started collaboration with world-leading researchers and clinicians in the field of Cardioprotection who came to this meeting as part of their management committee membership. Specifically, Norwegian researchers are now part of newly formed multicenter study groups aiming at evaluating cardioprotective therapies in the pre- and clinical setting. This enables Norwegian groups to apply for European grants in consortia with highly profiled researchers.

The main aim of the pan-European COST Action CA-16225 is to realise the therapeutic potential of novel cardioprotective therapies. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and the heart failure that often follows are the leading causes of death and disability in Europe. As such, new treatments are required but despite intensive research, the challenge has been to successfully translate novel cardioprotective therapies discovered in the laboratory setting into the clinical setting. This COST ACTION addresses this challenge by setting up a pan-European Research Network of leading experts in cardioprotection, to jointly develop innovative strategies for translating novel cardioprotective therapies into the clinical setting for patient benefit. This COST action is open for all researchers and the Norwegian summit aims at Norwegian researchers to participate in this COST action in the presently four WORKING GROUPS [WG] leading to future collaboration in both research and EU-wide applications as well as to stimulate young researchers to engage in scientific exchange within Europe through funded short-term scientific exchange programs: (1) To use innovative strategies to discover novel targets for cardioprotection (WG1: NEW TARGETS). (2) To investigate the effects of combination therapy directed to multiple targets as an innovative cardioprotective strategy (WG2: COMBINATION THERAPY). (3) To use more clinically relevant animal models for testing novel cardioprotective therapies taking into account the confounding effects of co-morbidities and co-medication (WG3: CONFOUNDERS). (4) To set up a European network of research centers (European Cardioprotection Consortium, ECC) for: (a) Multi-center preclinical testing of novel cardioprotective therapies using small/large animal models of acute myocardial IRI; and (b) Proof-of-concept clinical testing of novel cardioprotective therapies in AMI patients (WG4:CONSORTIUM).