The goal of Target Heart Biotec is to develop melusin as a new recombinant protein drug capable to sustain cardiac performance in heart failure.
Current pharmacological therapy in heart failure patients is based on drugs such as:
- Diuretics (Furosemide, Hydrochlorthiazide, Spironolactone)
- Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (Captopril, Lisinopril, Enalapril)
- Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (Valsartan, Losartan, Irbesartan)
- Vasodilators (Isosorbide Dinitrate, Nitroglycerin)
- Beta blockers (Carvedilol, Metoprolol, Bisoprolol)
- Digitalis (Digoxin, Oubain)
These drugs reduce undesirable consequences of heart failure on different peripheral organs allowing: relieve of pulmonary and peripheral edema (Diuretics), relaxation of blood vessels, thus, lowering the resistance against which the heart has to pump (Vasodilators, Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, and Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers), reduction of sympathetic overactivity on the heart (Beta-Blockers), increase Ca2+ release (Digitalis).
None of these drugs, however, is specifically designed to boost heart function, which represents the primary defect in heart failure.
Melusin will pioneer an entirely new therapeutical approach to heart failure, aimed to correct the functional and structural defects of the heart by triggering cardiac endogenous mechanisms physiologically activated during compensatory hypertrophy.
Therapeutic applications of melusin in heart failure
- Treatment of cardiomyopathy associated with chronic hypertension
- Myocardial infarction
- Aortic stenosis
- Myocarditis
- Genetic forms of dilated cardiomyopathy
