Grant: Idea to Innovation

Every year, almost 1 million North American patients undergo open-chest heart surgery to treat blocked arteries or damaged heart valves. However, half of these patients develop an abnormal heart rhythm called "atrial fibrillation", which can increase the risk of heart failure and stroke. Post-operative atrial fibrillation also doubles mortality, increases hospital costs, and impairs patient quality of life.To address this issue, we recently found that extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from heart cells can prevent post-operative atrial fibrillation by reducing inflammation. However, previous methods to isolate EVs using ultracentrifugation were time-consuming and limited in the amount of EVs that could be obtained. To overcome this limitation, we transitioned our methods to using tangential flow filtration methods which allowed for larger quantities of EVs to be obtained more quickly.The goal of this project is to develop a manufacturing method for heart-derived EVs that ensures purity, potency, and reproducibility, which is necessary to meet Health Canada's requirements for clinical testing. If successful, this technology will be used in a clinical study to test the safety and efficacy of EVs in patients at high risk for post-operative atrial fibrillation.