Catherine Llorens-Cortes, winner of the 2023 Médaille des Applications des Sciences awarded by the French Academy of Sciences, neuropharmacologist, Inserm Emeritus Research Director and member of the European Academy of Sciences, headed the Laboratoire Neuropeptides Centraux et Régulations Hydriques et Cardiovasculaires (Inserm U691) at the Collège de France (CDF) for over twenty years, integrated in 2011 into the CDF's Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Biologie (Inserm U1050/CNRS 7241).
His work has led to the identification of new therapeutic targets for the treatment of arterial hypertension (AH), heart failure (HF) and hyponatremia. This has led to the discovery of several molecules of therapeutic interest, and the launch of innovative research from the laboratory to the clinical stage. For example, firibastat, the first aminopeptidase inhibitor A to penetrate the brain, normalizes blood pressure in several experimental models of hypertension by blocking hyperactivity of the cerebral renin-angiotensin system and regulating activity in the kidneys, vessels and heart. Moreover, by normalizing sympathetic hyperactivity, firibastat improves cardiac function in a model of post-myocardial infarction (MI) CHF. These data were confirmed in a phase II clinical trial in patients after a first MI, where treatment with firibastat prevented left ventricular dysfunction with good blood pressure tolerance. Finally, the discovery of metabolically stable apelin analogues, such as LIT01-196, has shown that activation of the apelin receptor by this compound could offer a new approach to the treatment of hyponatremia.
