This technology is a protein for the treatment of cardiac and coronary artery inflammation that can be used as a potential therapeutic approach for vascular conditions like Kawasaki disease (KD) and immune mediated myocarditis.
Although Kawasaki disease (KD) is a common heart disease in children, the cause KD is unclear, presenting challenges for timely diagnosis. Current treatments for KD involve the administration of anti-inflammatories to prevent long-term heart damage but specific potential therapeutic targets of KD remain unknown. Identifying biomarkers of KD can assist in the early and effective treatment of the cardiac and coronary artery associated complications and inflammation. Further study of the molecular mechanisms involved in KD pathology and the implicated inflammatory pathways will be informative in developing treatments and improved models for cardiac inflammation. The applications of this technology will be useful in studying other inflammatory conditions as well, such as myocarditis and aortitis.
This technology involves the use of a recombinant glycosylated protein, FSTL-1, as a biomarker and therapeutic target for Kawasaki disease (KD), for the treatment of cardiac and coronary artery inflammation. Treatment with the recombinant protein was observed to decrease cardiac and coronary artery inflammation via downregulation of the macrophage inflammatory response and decreasing inflammatory cell infiltrate. Additionally, a FSTL-1 knockout mouse model of myocarditis and aortitis was developed to enable the examination of FSTL-1’s role in cardiac inflammation. This technology can be used to further study the role of FSTL-1 in KD pathology as well as in overall cardiac inflammation.
This technology has been validated in a mouse model.
Patent Pending
IR CU23248
Licensing Contact: Sara Gusik
