TECHNOLOGY

Disease Applications

Myocardial infarction, Reperfusion Injury

Myocardial infarction is caused by obstruction of one or more coronary blood vessels giving rise to ischemia in downstream areas of the heart muscle. While coronary revascularization is essential to salvage ischemic myocardial tissue, the re-establishment of blood flow by interventional or surgical methods (PTCA, CABG, stenting) causes the formation of oxygen radicals and an acute inflammatory response. If unchecked the inflammation leads to an irreversible damage of the heart muscle, limiting the success of the reperfusion procedure. It is commonly accepted that ~50% of overall tissue damage is caused by reperfusion injury.
The inflammatory reaction can be mitigated by application of FX06 concomitant with reperfusion. FIBREX Medical has been able to show that FX06 prohibits the emigration of all leukocyte subtypes into myocardial tissue.

Delayed graft function

Renal transplantation has become the most important treatment option for patients with end-stage renal disease and renal failure. However, the growth of the number of surgeries is limited by the availability of suitable donor organs. Patients today have to wait for a median of 38 months for a suitable organ. Much could be gained, if the donor pool could be expanded by the use of so-called marginal donors, for instance stroke victims. However, 30-50% patients receiving transplants from these donors experience a phenomenon called delayed graft function, where the transplanted organ is not fully operative in the first two weeks after the procedure. Delayed graft function is thought to derive from reperfusion injury. Unfortunately, graft survival is significantly reduced for these patients. FIBREX Medical believes that its compounds are able to prevent delayed graft function and thereby allow a very significant expansion of the donor pool.

Systemic inflammatory response

Resuscitation in trauma patients with severe blood loss can lead to a catastrophic activation of the immune system with strong inflammatory reaction, vascular leak and multi-organ dysfunction, called systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). It is the most common cause of death among patients, who initially survive their injuries. SIRS can also be caused by bacterial sepsis leading to septic shock, which has a similar complex of symptoms as hemorrhagic shock, and by infection with tropical viruses like the Dengue virus. In all of these syndromes, the disease eventually becomes independent from the causing agent(s) and runs its own cause. Its hallmarks are leukocyte infiltration, severe edema caused by capillary leak, and coagulation disorders, eventually leading to multi-organ dysfunction and failure. FIBREX Medical has very encouraging data in models of these severe diseases, with organ protection and prevention of mortality.