$1.3 Million Grant to Fund Research on Reducing Cardiac Injury
with the First Drug-Eluting Guidewire
New Orleans, LA (August 11, 2017) - Adenopaint, LLC of Atlanta, GA, in conjunction with LSU Health New Orleans Cardiovascular Center of Excellence, has been awarded an SBIR Phase II grant in the amount of $1.3 million over two years by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The funding will be used to study the company's Adenowire, a novel guidewire coated with a drug which is released during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to prevent and reverse vascular and cardiac tissue injury during PCI and therefore improve outcomes in cardiovascular diseases.
The grant will directly fund $735,000 to LSU Health New Orleans to study the efficacy of the Adenowire, a patented guidewire designed to produce immediate and continuous release of high dose adenosine locally to the injured tissue during coronary intervention procedures. Adenopaint's Adenowire technology, the world's first drug-eluting guidewire, could have a profound impact on millions of people suffering from coronary artery disease undergoing angioplasty each year. The newly funded research will investigate its effectiveness in reducing tissue injury in a model of acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack. A goal of this research is to move this promising new technology towards human clinical trials.
Adenopaint's CEO Mervyn Forman, MD, PhD and LSU Health New Orleans Cardiovascular Center of Excellence Director David Lefer, PhD, are the grant's principal investigators. They will work alongside LSU Health New Orleans Cardiovascular Center Translational Core Laboratory Director Traci Goodchild, PhD, to evaluate the effect of Adenowire to increase blood flow and reduce heart muscle damage in an experimental model of heart attack. There is dire need to develop a safe device to reduce heart muscle damage and prevent heart failure in patients with acute heart attacks.
While at an early stage of overall development, the Adenowire is likely to provide a substantial impact in the treatment of tissue perfusion injury. A guidewire containing covalently bonded adenosine for controlled local delivery is innovative and if these studies are successful, likelihood of commercialization is high.
“This approach could potentially effect more than 1 million people worldwide yearly with better outcomes following acute myocardial infarction,” said Dr. David Lefer, Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Cardiovascular Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine.
LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSUHSC research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact. LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.
AdenoPaint LLC, based out of Atlanta, GA, is a seed stage mechanical device company founded in 2010 to develop adenosine based technologies to treat cardiovascular disorders. Adenowire, an innovative adenosine coated guidewire for vascular interventional procedure, is the company's leading product under development, evolving from groundbreaking research starting in the 1980's into applications for adenosine as a cardioprotectant during heart attacks.