miRagen Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients' lives by developing innovative microRNA (miRNA)-based therapeutics for cardiovascular and muscle disease, announced today that new preclinical data published in the online edition of Circulation Research suggests that microRNA-15 (miR-15) inhibits cardiomyogenesis, the process whereby new heart muscle cells are formed. The research, exclusively licensed by miRagen Therapeutics, was conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Washington University Center for Pharmacogenomics and miRagen.
The inhibition of miR-15 may actually help to stimulate cardiomyogenesis, evidenced by an increased number of mitotic cardiomyocytes in mouse models of cardiac disease in this study. miRagen previously has shown that inhibition of miR-15 can spare cardiomyocytes from death during myocardial infarction (MI), resulting in less heart tissue death and an improvement in cardiac function after a heart attack.
"This study provides a more robust understanding of miR-15's role in the inhibition of cell proliferation," said Eric N. Olson, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Advisor and Co-founder of miRagen Therapeutics, Inc. "And further, the findings suggest that fine tuning of cardiac cell cycle genes by miRNAs may be an important regulatory component of heart regeneration and repair."
"We are very pleased with these results, which suggest that, ultimately, antimiR-15 therapy following a heart attack could potentially be both protective and regenerative," said William S. Marshall, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of miRagen Therapeutics, Inc. "These findings deepen our understanding of microRNA biology—particularly as they may relate to the heart's post-MI capacity for recovery—and help to advance our mission to develop innovative microRNA-based therapeutics to treat patients afflicted with cardiovascular disease."
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