HIMF and related proteins in pulmonary, cardiac and inflammatory disorders
Hypoxia-Induced Mitogenic Factor (HIMF; also known as FIZZ1/RELM? a member of the resistin protein family, is a secreted protein that was found to be highly up regulated in the lungs as a result of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. HIMF has pro-mitogenic, antiogenic and inflammatory properties and is implicated in a number of pulomonary (asthma, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary vascular disease), inflammatory (inflammatory lung disease, sepsis, AIDS), and cardiac (hypertension, ischemic heart disease, congestive heart failure) conditions. JHU researchers have shown that direct injection of HIMF can promote inflammatory and angiogenic responses in the lung and other tissues and they have developed agents for inhibiting HIMF. Furthermore, they have identified the receptor for HIMF, the first receptor identified for this family of proteins. In addition, anti-HIMF antibodies were developed that may be used to measure HIMF in body fluids as a potential predictive/diagnostic of disease. Description (Set) Proposed Use (Set) HIMF and its receptor are novel therapeutic targets for a wide array of lung, vascular, cardiac and inflammatory diseases, as well as cancer and wound-healing. HIMF is also a biomarker for these disorders and it is anticipated that genomic assays of HIMF human analogues and their SNPs can be used as predictors of pulmonary hypertension and asthma, and that assaying HIMF from nasal swabs and lung washings may provide a method for measuring the severity of asthma. Furthermore, HIMF can be used directly to stimulate inflammation and angiogenesis.Inventor(s): Johns, Roger A.
Type of Offer: Licensing
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