Chuanxi Cai, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Surgery’s Division of Surgical Sciences at the University of Virginia, has been awarded three grants totaling $3.3 million to develop new treatments for burn-related lung damage, chemical lung injury, and heart disease. The awards, received earlier this year, reflect growing national investment in Dr. Cai’s work translating laboratory discoveries into therapies with potential for both military personnel and civilians facing lung injury and heart failure.
Nearly $1.7 million from the Department of Defense supports a project titled “Preserving Lung Integrity and Harnessing Inflammation to Treat Burn-Induced Inhalation Injury” through the Military Burn Research Program. Dr. Cai and collaborators, including Jianjie Ma, PhD, and Nick Tsihlis, PhD, from the Department of Surgery; Melina Kibbe, MD, at UT Health Houston; and Dr. Yongqing Li, MD, PhD, at the University of Michigan, are developing a combination therapy using a protective protein called MG53 and a novel humanized monoclonal antibody (hCitH3-mAb). B, caused by inhaling smoke, hot air, or toxic fumes, remains a serious threat to service members and civilians alike, and current treatments do not address its root causes, including runaway inflammation and cellular damage. The team’s goal is to generate the proof-of-concept data needed to advance the therapy toward FDA approval.
A NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences R01 award for nearly $1.5 million supports a related effort of testing the therapeutic effectiveness of MG53 in the treatment of vesicant-induced lung injury. Collaborating with Patrick McNutt, PhD, at Wake Forest University, Dr. Cai and Dr. Ma are investigating how MG53, a tissue repair molecule, can counteract lung damage caused by chemical vesicant agents such as sulfur mustard and nitrogen mustard, compounds that destroy cell membranes and trigger prolonged inflammation and scarring. These researchers have demonstrated that MG53 serves a dual role, both repairing injured lung tissue and dampening excessive immune responses. Proof-of-concept studies in animal models will evaluate the protein’s efficacy and safety as a potential countermeasure.
Additionally, a $100,000 Bridge Transformational Project Award from the American Heart Association will allow Dr. Cai to continue investigating how a newly identified cardiac-specific long noncoding RNA regulates the clearance of damaged mitochondria in heart muscle. This work, which was built on a prior AHA-funded study, aims to connect fundamental biology to future therapeutic strategies for heart failure.
“These awards underscore the translational promise of our research programs focusing on the therapeutics, which span lung protection and cardiac biology,” said Dr. Cai. The projects collectively involve multi-institutional teams/collaborations and address conditions, battlefield burns, chemical exposure, and heart failure, where effective therapies remain limited.
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