Mitochondria and the heart
The importance of mitochondria in cardiovascular pathophysiology and the potential of targeting mitochondrial dysfunction for clinical interventions to improve cardiac function have been increasingly recognized over the past decade. Nature Reviews Cardiology brings together a collection of the most recent articles from Nature Research journals that highlight the role of mitochondria in the heart, from mitochondrial energy production to redox signalling or mitochondrial calcium efflux, and the new opportunities for mitochondria-targeted therapies in cardiac diseases, for example, to modify the defect in energy substrate utilization associated with heart failure or to mitigate ischaemia–reperfusion injury.
This Collection is editorially independent, produced with financial support from a third party. About this content.
Stealth BioTherapeutics (founded 2007) is an innovative biopharmaceutical company developing therapies to treat mitochondrial dysfunction associated with genetic mitochondrial diseases and common diseases of aging such as heart failure. Our team works with patients and advocacy organizations to better understand the challenges faced by patients and raise awareness of the unmet medical need we seek to address. We collaborate with top-tier academic and medical institutions, scientific thought leaders, and clinical key opinion leaders in developing the first generation of targeted therapies focusing on mitochondrial dysfunction as it relates to multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular disease.
Our lead compound, elamipretide, is currently in Phase 2 development for the treatment of patients with heart failure, where mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the main underlying causes. The current landscape in the management of these patients is to treat the associated symptoms of heart failure; there are no FDA-approved therapies that fully address the pathology of disease. Our investigational drug, elamipretide, is formulated for systemic administration in this patient population, with the potential to modify disease through mitoprotection — the ability to preserve and restore normal energy production in mitochondria while decreasing oxidative stress.
We at Stealth BioTherapeutics are dedicated to supporting our lead investigational candidate by employing highly scientific methods to expand our clinical research program.
