Methods for treating a patient undergoing chemotherapy

Patent Number: 7,338,938

The current patent covers the use of a peptide derived from angiotensin I for stimulation of hematopoiesis after insult to the blood making system of a host. Specifically, the patent addresses the hematopoietic insult of chemotherapy. Since many types of chemotherapeutic agents kill proliferating cells, the hematopoietic system is often injured as a consequence of administration of these agents. In fact, the dose limiting toxicity associated with chemotherapy is often hematopoietic.

Other approaches towards protecting the hematopoietic system during chemotherapy are known. One that is often used is the administration of hematopoietic growth factors such as granulocyte colony stimulating factor. Experimental approaches for stimulating other types of cells after hematopoietic insult are also being attempted, for example, the use of thrombopoietin mimetic peptides for the stimulation of megakaryocyte rebound. Clinically used agents such as human chorionic gonadotropin have also been demonstrated to stimulate hematopoiesis.

The current patent is interesting since angiotensin is usually associated with physiological control of blood pressure. However of interest is that fact that the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibits an inhibitor of hematopoiesis called AcSDKP and that ACE is preferentially activated in leukemic bone marrow (Beyazit et al. Overexpression of the local bone marrow renin-angiotensin system in acute myeloid leukemia. J Natl Med Assoc. 2007 Jan;99(1):57-63).

View this patent on the USPTO website.