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BEAT BioTherapeutics dATP Technology Improves Cardiac Function in End Stage Human Heart Failure Cardiac MuscleBEAT 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 (News - Alert) (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," aid 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 |
