Recent progress in the understanding of relaxin family peptides and their receptors

The 7th International Conference in the series on ‘Relaxin and related peptides’ covered all aspects of the basic biology of relaxin (human H2-relaxin), its potential clinical applications and the current clinical trials in acute heart failure. Additionally, the evolution, chemistry, pharmacology, physiology and potential clinical applications of the other members of the relaxin peptide family including, relaxin-3, insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3) and INSL5 were also covered. Relaxin pharmacology has reached an important stage with the recombinant form of the peptide now in extended Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of acute heart failure (see articles by Unemori 2017 and Sarwar et al., 2017) having been identified as one of few approaches with the potential to improve cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in this condition.