Aficamten is a small-molecule cardiac myosin inhibitor designed to treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

ABSTRACT: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is an inherited disease of the sarcomere resulting in excessive cardiac contractility. The first-in-class cardiac myosin inhibitor, mavacamten, improves symptoms in obstructive HCM. Here we present aficamten, a selective small-molecule inhibitor of cardiac myosin that diminishes ATPase activity by strongly slowing phosphate release, stabilizing a weak actin-binding state. Binding to an allosteric site on the myosin catalytic domain distinct from mavacamten, aficamten prevents the conformational changes necessary to enter the strongly actin-bound force-generating state. In doing so, aficamten reduces the number of functional myosin heads driving sarcomere shortening. The crystal structure of aficamten bound to cardiac myosin in the pre-powerstroke state pro

SUBMITTER: Hartman JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11358156 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature