PulmoBind is a new non-invasive marker developed by Dr Jocelyn Dupuis for the early diagnosis of patients with pulmonary hypertension.
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. It is a devastating and life-threatening disorder affecting between 2,000 and 10,000 Canadians.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.
A Phase II study is currently underway with results anticipated in 2014.
PulmoBind has the potential to become the first non-invasive molecular imaging agent for an early PH diagnosis.
Impact on the drug discovery process
Early, non-invasive diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension:
- Cost efficient recruitment of patients for clinical trials
- Early treatment with potential for better drug efficacy
- Could replace the non-specific 6 min. walk test as the endpoint in clinical trials
- Use in animal models to better predict drug efficacy by directly probing the status of the pulmonary circulation.
