Scott Bultman, PhD (Associate Professor, Genetics) and Monte Willis, MD, PhD, FACP, FAHA (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) are co-inventors on a patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office titled “Methods and Compositions for Treatment of Heart Failure.”
The application, filed in April 2016, is focused on using histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and/or histone acetyltransferases (HAT) activators to treat heart failure in humans. Specifically, the invention relates to the method of increasing expression of Brg1, Brm, Cx40, Cx43, and or Scn5a mRNA and/or protein, or decreasing expression of c-Myc mRNA or protein using HDAC inhibitors and/or HAT activators. It is proposed that these changes in gene expression will increase or improve conduction in the heart.