Use of erythropoietin for the preventive or curative treatment of cardiac failure

Patent Number: 7,335,490

The use of erythropoietin for non-hematopoietic purposes has been increasing in the last couple of years. One obvious example is the Canadian company Stem Cell Therapeutics (sss.v) which is using erythropoietin together with human chorionic gonadotropin for treatment of patients post-stroke. Other uses of erthrypoietin include direct stimulation of neurite outgrowth.

The current patent covers the use of a specific type of recombinant erythropoietin for treatment of a patient with heart failure. Specifically the patent claims a recombinant erthyropoietin that is produced in an "isolated host cell expressing at least the Early Region 1A (E1A) protein of an adenovirus, wherein said host cell is a cell as deposited under European Collection of Animal Cell Cultures (ECACC) no. 96022940".

In the summary of the invention the inventors make an interesting discussion. Essentially they state that EPO has conventionally been used for the treatment of anemia and that some of the anemic patients had heart failure. Specifically, the inventors discuss a type of heart failure that is actually associated with anemia. When the EPO was used to treat the anemia an increased heart performance was observed. Accordingly the inventors asked whether non-hematopoietic modulating effects of EPO could be at work, which it seems like they were.

The examples in the patent include:

1. Detection of EPO receptor in human and rat heart tissue

2. Anti-apoptotic effects of EPO in the ischemia reperfusion rat model

3. Inhibition of apoptosis in chronic ischemia models

View this patent on the USPTO website.