Definitions
Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury
A heart attack is usually caused by blockage of an artery supplying the heart. Muscle cells beyond the block are then deprived of oxygen and nutrients. This ischemia leads to cell death- “myocardial infarction”- which may be fatal.
Cardiac surgeries and interventional procedures to restore blood flow may temporarily increase ischemia, and paradoxically result in "reperfusion injury" which can exceed the original ischemic damage. Thus the sequence of events is known as "ischemia-reperfusion" injury. This leads to extended hospital stay and limits recovery in patients undergoing cardiac surgeries and interventional procedures. Such complications add thousands to hospital costs.
Products
Ischemix is developing small molecule therapies for the reduction and/or prevention of ischemia-reperfusion injury. Our core technology is based upon selecting known active natural molecules with established drug activity and modifying the parent compounds to enhance the drug properties, activity, and efficacy to obtain a novel, new chemical entity. Ischemix has a pipeline of modified natural molecules for different ischemic-based injury indications. Ischemix intends to develop these therapies as stand-alone therapeutics and/or as adjuncts to thrombolytic drugs such as tPA.
Therapeutic compounds advanced to preclinical and clinical testing have been created by modifying known molecules with demonstrated cytoprotective and anti-oxidant properties to improve efficacy and drug-like character. The medicinal chemistry progression is guided by testing the compounds both in vitro and in vivo.
Ischemix's lead compound CMX-2043 has completed both Phase 1 safety studies in humans and demonstrated proof-of-principle in a Phase 2a study for safety and reduction of injury in patients undergoing a cardiac interventional procedure.
CMX-2043 and related molecules show promise in additional related indications. Pre-clinical studies using well developed and validated industry-standard methods show that CMX-272XX compounds statistically reduce cell death and tissue damage caused by ischemia-reperfusion injury of the kidney. Ischemix has also discovered compounds (CMX-211XX) which can prevent injury induced atrial fibrillation, a common complication from coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery that is associated with adverse patient outcomes.
Ischemix Product Pipeline
