Altimmune presents data on the effect of pemvidutide on cardioinflammatory lipids during oral presentation at American Diabetes Association’s 84th Annual Scientific Sessions.

Dysregulated lipid profiles in obesity can cause systemic inflammation and elevate cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. To better understand the potential impact of pemvidutide on lipoprotein and glycoprotein biomarkers of CVD inflammation, samples were analyzed from the 12-week, randomized placebo-controlled Phase I study of pemvidutide in subjects with overweight or obesity but not type 2 diabetes. In the study, 34 subjects were randomly assigned 1:1:1:1 to pemvidutide (1.2mg, 1.8mg and 2.4mg) or placebo administered once-weekly subcutaneously for 12 weeks. Lipidomic, lipoparticle and glycoprotein profiling was conducted using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance on plasma samples at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment.

Serum lipids including total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides were reduced by 28%, 26% and 38% respectively. The reductions in each class of these lipids were not correlated with weight loss, suggesting that lipid effects were due to the direct impact of pemvidutide on lipid metabolism. A detailed analysis showed pemvidutide significantly reduced small dense LDL-C, short-chain diglycerides with higher degree of saturation, lysophosphatidylinositols, lysophosphatidylcholines and sphingolipids, all lipids with a strong association with CVD.

Reductions in GlycA and GlycB, biomarkers of systemic inflammation that are known to correlate with heart failure, were also observed. In addition to the reductions in weight and serum lipids, treatment with pemvidutide resulted in reductions to systolic and diastolic blood pressure across all dose groups, suggesting that pemvidutide may have pleiotropic effects that may contribute to decreased CVD risk.