The typical characteristics of these heart muscle disorders are ventricle enlargement and the inability to pump enough blood for the body‘s needs and finally severe heart failure. For idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, the prevalence is 36 cases per 100,000 people and the incidence is 1–2 cases per 100,000 people per year, whereas for Chagas’ cardiomyopathy (based on the whole population of Latin America) the prevalence is 1000 cases per 100,000 people and the incidence is 10 cases per 100,000 people per year. The incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy shows regional differences from 1 in 300 live births in Haiti to 1 in 1300-4000 live births in the US. The novel aptamers strongly inhibit the agonistic effect of beta1-adrenergic receptor-directed autoantibodies isolated from patients with idiopatic dilated cardiomyopathy, Chagas’ cardiomyopathy and peripartum cardiomyopathy, as demonstrated in a bioassay analyzing the beating frequency of rat cardiomyocytes. The specificity of the new aptamers to the autoantibodies relevant for the indicated cardiomyopathies has potential in the development of valuable new agents for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

IP Rights
An EP application was filed on 29 June, 2010.

Origin
• Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Max-Delbrück –Centrum für Molekulare Medizin Berlin-Buch
• Aptares AG