BEAT BioTherapeutics Corporation (BEATBio) announced today the
publication of an important new paper, “2-Deoxy adenosine
triphosphate improves contraction in human end-stage heart failure” (Farid
Moussavi-Harami, et al), in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular
Cardiology.
Samples of heart muscle tissues from fifteen end stage heart failure
patients undergoing transplant or device implant were collected by a
team of scientists at the University of Washington’s Department of
Medicine and Department of Bioengineering, led by Dr. Farid
Moussavi-Harami and BEATBio co-founder Dr. Michael Regnier. “We have
shown the ability of deoxy ATP (dATP) to improve cardiac performance in
multiple animal models over the last few years. Now, for the first time,
we have demonstrated that dATP can activate myosin to increase the speed
and force of contraction in cardiac muscle from human patients with end
stage heart failure. Importantly, this occurs without compromising
relaxation,” said Dr. Regnier.
BEATBio is developing BB-R12, a gene therapy based on increasing
myocardial dATP, for the treatment of heart failure. BB-R12 represents
the clinical application of nearly twenty years of research in Dr.
Regnier’s lab and is the only gene therapy for heart failure in
development that works independently of calcium regulation. “BEATBio’s
founders have proven the concept that raising dATP levels will improve
cardiac function in normal and diseased animal models. It’s rare to get
a chance to show such clear results in a human setting at this stage of
drug development and this represents a milestone demonstration of the
technology,” said Michael Kranda, BEATBio CEO. “This data, along with
results from our recent swine infarction study showing BB-R12’s ability
to significantly reverse heart failure in a well accepted pre-clinical
model, gives us increased confidence as we move toward the clinic next
year.”
About BEATBio: BEATBio is a Seattle-based biotechnology company.
Its founders are recognized experts in cardiovascular biology, muscle
physiology and bioengineering, and have received nearly $50MM of NIH
funding. BEATBio holds exclusive rights to the BB-R12 technology and
used a recently raised $4 million in seed financing to successfully
complete the initial stages of pre-clinical development and
manufacturing scale-up. The team had rapid achievement of significant
milestones in 2013-2014. The company is now in a Series A funding round
to complete IND-enabling studies and Phase I human trials. www.beatbiotherapeutics.com
Copyright Business Wire 2015