Harnessing microRNA biology to treat
    cardiovascular and muscle disease
Sunday February 05, 2012
 
Heart Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an umbrella term for a variety for different diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels, including:

  • Coronary heart disease: a disease of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle,
  • Cerebrovascular disease: a disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain,
  • Peripheral arterial disease: a disease of blood vessels supplying the arms and legs,
  • Rheumatic heart disease: damage to the heart muscle and heart valves from rheumatic fever, caused by streptococcal bacteria,
  • Congenital heart disease: malformations of heart structure existing at birth,
  • Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism: blood clots in the leg veins, which can dislodge and move to the heart and lungs.

Facts:

  • CVDs are the number one cause of death globally: more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause;
  • By 2015, almost 20 million people will die from CVDs, mainly from heart disease and stroke. These are projected to remain the single leading causes of death. (World Health Organization)

Traditional drug targets, such as cell surface receptors, enzymes and ion channels have posed significant challenges in developing new therapeutics for restoring function to the failing heart. Consequently, many major pharmaceutical companies have abandoned their heart failure programs feeling the disease is simply too complex despite its staggering impact on the health care system, estimated to total $287 billion in U.S. health costs alone (American Heart Association).

The recent discovery of miRNA as markers and modulators of heart failure and pathological cardiac remodeling poses an invaluable opportunity to uncover an entirely new biology of disease. Extensive studies conducted by miRagen and our academic collaborators have identified miRNAs as specific regulators in different disease states of the heart, vasculature and skeletal muscle. miRagen aims to use these miRNA discoveries to develop innovative miRNA based therapeutics.

miRagen’s CVD areas of focus: