Designer natriuretic peptides: a vision for the future of heart failure therapeutics

Despite recent pharmacological advances in heart failure therapy, mortality from acute decompensated heart failure remains high. Conventional therapies are often insufficient to address the complex interplay between structural, functional, neurohumoral, and renal mechanisms involved in the heart failure syndrome. The natriuretic peptide system, however, offers a unique pleiotropic strategy which could bridge this gap in heart failure therapy. Exogenous administration of native A-type and B-type natriuretic peptides has been met with both success and limitations, and despite the limitations, remains a worthwhile endeavor. Alternatively, synthetic modification to create “designer” chimeric peptides holds the possibility to extend both the application and therapeutic benefits possible with a natriuretic peptide based approach. Herein we describe the development of natriuretic peptide based heart failure therapies, including the design, rationale, and preliminary studies of the novel chimeric peptides CD-NP and CU-NP.