BIO 2025: Getting to the Root of Cardiopulmonary Diseases with Epigenetic Modulation
In this pre-BIO 2025 interview, The Pharma Navigator sits down with Sten Sörensen from Cereno Scientific to learn more about epigenetic modulation a tool to treat rare cardiopulmonary diseases.
Cardiopulmonary diseases incorporate a wide range of serious conditions that affect the heart and lungs, including pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). These diseases, particularly cardiovascular conditions, are a major contributor to global mortality rates and burdensome to healthcare systems around the world (1).
A promising tool aiding in the treatment of cardiopulmonary diseases is epigenetic modification (2). “Epigenetic modulation does not change the structure of DNA,” asserts Sten Sörensen, CEO of Cereno Scientific — a clinical-stage biotech company. “DNA is the map of essential protein production for the body to function properly. Epigenetic modulation works around the DNA with the various structures that are regulating that protein production and, as it happens, these production systems go wrong in some patients or people over time.”
Enzymes involved in epigenetic regulation include histone deacetylases (HDACs), which are also known to have an important role in the occurrence and development of cardiopulmonary diseases (3). Therapies that inhibit HDACs have been used in the treatment of cancers for some time and are now being investigated for use in cardiopulmonary conditions (4).
“[Cereno Scientific is] pursuing two agents with HDAC inhibition,” reveals Sörensen. “CS1 is a repurposed molecule to treat PAH, a rare disease mostly affecting women, and CS014, which is a novel agent that we are pursuing for IPF. Both [conditions] are very detrimental with short life-expectancies and rapid progression.”
The decision to pursue these agents through clinical development is that during pre-clinical work there was evidence that the HDAC inhibitors benefited the disease models and have very specific characteristics that are promising for addressing the root causes of the diseases, Sörensen specifies. “We have seen that these agents are able to lower systemic and pulmonary pressure,” he says. “They are able to remodel in a positive way, the pathological remodeling that is happening in these diseases, both on the vascular and the coronary level, and for IPF, the lung level.”
Click the video above to view the full interview
References
World Heart Federation. Deaths from Cardiovascular Disease Surged 60% Globally over the Last 30 Years: Report. World-Heart-Federation.org, May 20, 2023.
Qiu, Y.; Xu, Q.; Xie, P.; et al. Epigenetic Modifications and Emerging Therapeutic Targets in Cardiovascular Aging and Diseases. Pharmacol. Res. 2025, 211, 107546.
Bagchi, R.A.; Weeks, K.L. Histone Deacetylases in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases. J. Mol. Cell Cardiol. 2019, 130, 151–159.
Yoon, S.; Eom, G.H. HDAC and HDAC Inhibitor: From Cancer to Cardiovascular Diseases. Chonnam Med. J. 2016, 52 (1), 1–11.
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