Cardiac Troponin Activator CK-963 Increases Cardiac Contractility in Rats

Novel cardiac troponin activators were identified using a high throughput cardiac myofibril ATPase assay and confirmed using a series of biochemical and biophysical assays. HTS hit 2 increased rat cardiomyocyte fractional shortening without increasing intracellular calcium concentrations, and the biological target of 1 and 2 was determined to be the cardiac thin filament. Subsequent optimization to increase solubility and remove PDE-3 inhibition led to the discovery of CK-963 and enabled pharmacological evaluation of cardiac troponin activation without the competing effects of PDE-3 inhibition. Rat echocardiography studies using CK-963 demonstrated concentration-dependent increases in cardiac fractional shortening up to 95%. Isothermal calorimetry studies confirmed a direct interaction between CK-963 and a cardiac troponin chimera with a dissociation constant of 11.5 ± 3.2 μM. These results provide evidence that direct activation of cardiac troponin without the confounding effects of PDE-3 inhibition may provide benefit for patients with cardiovascular conditions where contractility is reduced.