Development of a novel chemical entity to treat fibrocontractive diseases

• Research unit: INNOSUISSE
• Project number: 9148.2;13 PFLS-LS

Short description (English)

Development of a novel chemical entity to treat fibrocontractive diseases

Short description (French)

Development of a novel chemical entity to treat fibrocontractive diseases

Abstract (English)

Hypertrophic wounds (e.g. burns), fibromatosis (e.g. Dupuytren's disease) and fibrotic diseases (e.g. lung fibrosis) are characterized by pathological contraction caused by myofibroblast contraction, being promoted by á-smooth muscle actin (á-SMA) in stress fibers. It has been shown that the administration of the á-SMAspecific N-terminal sequence Ac-EEED as tetrapeptide leads to the removal of á-SMA from stress fibers, reverses myofibroblasts into non-fibrogenic fibroblasts and reduces wound contraction. However, the short lifetime of the peptide and problems linked with the delivery of the peptide have prevented from any clinical development until now. Capitalizing on the experience of ArisGen, a company specialized on peptide delivery, we want to generate a new derivatized Ac-EEED peptido-mimetic as therapeutically active compound and test novel peptide delivery technology, proprietary of ArisGen a to allow topically and systemically application to inhibit tissue contractures.

Abstract (French)

Hypertrophic wounds (e.g. burns), fibromatosis (e.g. Dupuytren's disease) and fibrotic diseases (e.g. lung fibrosis) are characterized by pathological contraction caused by myofibroblast contraction, being promoted by á-smooth muscle actin (á-SMA) in stress fibers. It has been shown that the administration of the á-SMAspecific N-terminal sequence Ac-EEED as tetrapeptide leads to the removal of á-SMA from stress fibers, reverses myofibroblasts into non-fibrogenic fibroblasts and reduces wound contraction. However, the short lifetime of the peptide and problems linked with the delivery of the peptide have prevented from any clinical development until now. Capitalizing on the experience of ArisGen, a company specialized on peptide delivery, we want to generate a new derivatized Ac-EEED peptido-mimetic as therapeutically active compound and test novel peptide delivery technology, proprietary of ArisGen a to allow topically and systemically application to inhibit tissue contractures.