Milan, 9 May 2024 – We are at a turning point for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, the genetic heart disease with no cure, which mainly affects young people and athletes: new therapies are entering clinical trials and patients can participate to receive cutting-edge treatments and contribute to the progress of research.
This is the central message of the conference organized at the Monzino Cardiology Center on 10 May, in collaboration with the University of Padua entitled “At the heart of the problem: is research on arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy close to a turning point?”.
Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy (ACM) manifests itself with progressive cardiac dysfunction and arrhythmias, i.e. irregularities in the heart rhythm, leading, in the most serious cases, to sudden death. It is the tragic story of athletes like Davide Astori or Piermario Morosini and many less famous young people.
Currently there are no specific therapies for ACM, but only medicines that improve symptoms, and methods that prevent arrhythmias from becoming lethal, such as implanting a defibrillator in the patient.
“Information is vitally important for ACM patients and their families. Today we can finally also talk about specific treatments, even if they are currently only available through clinical trials. The trials in the start-up phase are of two types: revolutionary gene therapy approaches or “drug repurposing”, i.e. the testing of traditional drugs for a pathology different from the one for which they were approved. At Monzino, for example, we are about to launch a study on the effectiveness of statins against ACM” declares Elena Sommariva, Head of the Vascular Biology and Regenerative Medicine Unit at Monzino.
“We care that patients who access new research discoveries do so in an informed way, knowing the reasons that pushed us researchers to test certain therapies and the experimental results that have proven their preclinical effectiveness,” continues Sommariva.
“The new therapeutic possibilities that are developing in research laboratories offer us the opportunity to spread a positive message of hope, which we wish to share with patients – declares Alessandra Rampazzo, full professor of Applied Biology at the Department of Biology of the University of Padua – Our research group evaluated the in vitro effectiveness of a drug in blocking the molecular mechanisms of the disease. Thanks to the important European IMPACT funding, not only will this experimentation continue in in vivo models but other therapeutic solutions will also be tested.”
