Fibcd1 to treat or prevent muscle wasting (SJ-20-0008)

Description

While there are many physical therapies and exercises to help rebuild muscle, there is no clinical therapeutic for prevention of skeletal muscle wasting. Decline in skeletal muscle cell size (myofiber atrophy) is a key feature of cancer-induced wasting (cachexia); in particular, atrophy of the diaphragm, the major muscle responsible for breathing, is an important determinant of cancer-associated mortality. Researchers at St. Jude searching for solutions to this unmet need found that a recombinant protein Fibcd1 (recombinant Fibrinogen C Domain Containing 1) variant rescues the decrease in muscle cell size (myofiber atrophy) that is a feature of many human disease conditions, such as cancer, aging, diabetes, neurological disorders, infections, bed rest or cast immobilized limb, corticosteroid or other drug use, and others; and a worsening factor for prognosis.

Their proposed invention is a systemic or local injection of human rFibcd1 used to rescue and/or prevent the loss of muscle mass (muscle wasting) that occurs due to myofiber atrophy with many disease conditions.