PulmoBind: a new non-invasive marker for the early diagnosis of patients with pulmonary hypertension

 

Overview

This project is aimed at evaluating in human subjects PulmoBind, a novel marker that can detect early abnormalities of the pulmonary blood circulation. This non-invasive test will allow to establish an early and effective diagnosis of subjects suffering from pulmonary hypertension and to evaluate the disease progression.

 

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a condition associated with loss of blood vessels in the lungs leading to a gradual increase in shortness of breath and substantial disability and mortality. The development of effective drugs is impeded by the lack of non-invasive tests to detect the disease at an early stage and to follow its progress. PulmoBind is a novel marker that can detect abnormalities of pulmonary circulation linked with PH. This radio-labelled peptide enables rapid quantification of lung blood vessels using a standard nuclear medicine camera. Extensive preliminary animal studies have identified PulmoBind as the most promising molecular marker of lung vascular disease.

The first year of this project aims to evaluate the human safety profile of PulmoBind. Pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, dosimetric analysis and quality of imaging will be obtained in 20 healthy subjects injected with escalating doses of labelled PulmoBind. In parallel, this marker will be used to establish the best animal model for PH. If PulmoBind is proven safe, the Phase II/III efficacy study will be contemplated for years 2 and 3 of the project. Ultimately, PulmoBind has the potential to become the first non-invasive molecular imaging agent for an early PH diagnosis.

Impact on the drug discovery process

  • Pioneer the field of pulmonary hypertension
  • Allow an early, non-invasive diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension:
    • Facilitate patient recruitment
    • Treat early with the potential for better drug efficacy
    • Replace the 6-min. walk test as the end-point in clinical trials
  • Establish an animal model to better predict drug efficacy

 

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