Zielmoleküle für eine Decoy Oligodesoxnukleotid-Therapie der Herzinsuffizienz

Leitung:		Dr. Beate Berghöfer
Institut:		AVONTEC GmbH, Martinsried
Homepage:		www.avontec.com/

This subproject of the Heart Failure Therapy consortium aims at the development and optimization of decoy oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) directed against three different transcription which according to data generated within the NGFN-2 Cardiovascular Disease Network are thought to be pivotal for the pathogenesis of heart failure. Decoy ODNs represent a novel and innovative class of nucleic acid-based drugs that interfere with the aberrant expression of disease-related genes by specifically neutralizing the transcription factor controlling their expression. Albeit small, AVONTEC is a leading biopharmaceutical company in the design, preclinical and clinical development of these nucleic acid-based drugs for various indications including pro-inflammatory diseases of the lung and the skin as well as cardiovascular complications. The company contributes its intellectual property (proprietary decoy ODNs against two of the tree transcription factors) and entire know-how concerning the decoy ODN technology to the network, and will mainly be concerned with the synthesis and quality control of the decoy ODNs, optimization of the existing drug candidates and the designing of a highly effective and specific decoy ODN for the third transcription factor target. At the end of the initial 3-year funding period, AVONTEC will be in charge of coordinating the preclinical safety evaluation of the most promising decoy ODN drug candidate and initiating the clinical proof-of-concept studies approximately two years later.




Weitere relevante Internet-Links:
Institut für Physiologie und Pathophysiologie, Universität Heidelberg
Abt. Innere Medizin III: Kardiologie, Angiologie und Pneumologie