At the European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure 25–28 May, Lisborn, Portugal) several researchers from Europe and the USA (including Hani Sabbah and Hazel Szeto) reported on seven recent studies demonstrating the novel compound Bendavia’s ability to improve cardiac function, preserve viable myocardium and increase survival in systolic and diastolic heart failure models.
According to a company (Stealth) press release, Bendavia is a novel compound that targets mitochondria, restoring bioenergetics in the failing heart. It reported that the researchers’ findings presented at the congress highlighted Bendavia’s ability to restore cellular energetics across the continuum of cardiovascular diseases and improve cardiac and left ventricular performance in chronic heart failure.
Sabbah noted, “Bendavia represents a novel approach to therapy for patients with heart failure by improving mitochondrial energetics in the energy-starved heart. Bendavia has been shown to improve left ventricular function in heart failure models by increasing the availability of adenosine triphosphate or ATP. Given Bendavia’s unique mechanism of action, it has the potential to be complementary to the current standard of care therapies for both systolic and diastolic heart failure.”
The press release reported that standard models for both acute and chronic cardiovascular diseases have supported Bendavia’s improvement of cardiac performance and survival, and confirm the significance of its novel mechanism of action, which preserves mitochondrial function in disease.
Contrary to prior therapeutic strategies in cardiology that focused on uni-targeted pathways, Bendavia and its mitochondria-targeted actions address the more complicated, multifactorial nature of cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, Bendavia maintains electron transport efficiency, mitochondrial respiration and ATP levels, while preventing mitochondrial swelling and depolarization. Bendavia also holds promise as a treatment for acute and chronic kidney diseases and aged-related skeletal muscle dysfunction, both of which are common in heart failure patients and particularly those with diastolic dysfunction, often-termed heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Stealth’s CEO, Travis Wilson, remarked, “Stealth is excited about the multiplicity of encouraging findings by researchers at the congress and Bendavia’s potential for treating the growing prevalence of cardiovascular disease worldwide.”
Currently, Stealth is enrolling a multinational Phase II cardiac clinical study with Bendavia focused on ischemia reperfusion and microvascular injuries including the extent of “no-reflow” for patients experiencing acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
