Cenderitide may preserve cardiac function after heart attack

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a $2.5 million grant to Mayo Clinic's Cardiorenal Research Laboratory to conduct a highly innovative research project, "Cardiovascular Peptides and Myocardial Infarction." The research will seek to further understand the potential of a novel, engineered guanylyl cyclase (GC) activator, cenderitide, to reduce the level of cardiac and renal injury following a myocardial infarction, or heart attack. Researchers will try to determine whether the therapy could help prevent deterioration of cardiac and renal function following a heart attack, and potentially reduce further heart failure in the future in treated patients.

Mayo researchers invented cenderitide to activate two different subtypes of GC receptors, which uniquely differentiates cenderitide from other GC stimulating peptides. Cenderitide, a designer peptide derived from the venom of the green mamba snake, may aid in the preservation of cardiac and renal function following serious cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and acute decompensated heart failure.

At the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in November 2011, Fernando Martin, M.D., a research fellow in the Cardiorenal Research Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, presented key research data demonstrating the ability of cenderitide to prevent the death of heart cells.