Potential Parkinson’s Treatment of Toxic Protein Clumping in Phase 1 Trial, Yumanity Says – Parkinson’s News Today

Posted: Published on October 11th, 2019

This post was added by Alex Diaz-Granados

Yumanity Therapeuticsannounced the start of a Phase 1 clinical study in healthy volunteers that will assess the safety and tolerability of YTX-7739, a potential disease-modifying therapy for Parkinsons disease.

Trial results are expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2020.

YTX-7739 is designed to cross the blood-brain-barrier a semipermeable membrane that protects the brain and spinal cord from the external environment to inhibit the activity in the brain of an enzyme called stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) .

This enzyme is known to play a key role in the production of certain fat molecules, called unsaturated fatty acids, that mediate the neurotoxic effects ofalpha-synuclein protein accumulation a key constituent of Lewy bodies, the toxic protein clumps that are a Parkinsons hallmark.

In cell and animal disease models, the investigational medicine was shown to protect neurons againstalpha-synuclein-derived toxicity and improve their survival.

We advanced YTX-7739, an orally-active SCD inhibitor, into clinical development because of recent evidence established at Yumanity Therapeutics demonstrating its promise to protect cells from a-synuclein toxicity, said Kenneth Rhodes, PhD, the companys chief scientific officer, said in a press release.

We look forward to fully characterizing the potential clinical use of YTX-7739, which is clearly differentiated from currently available Parkinsons disease therapies that only address the symptoms, not the underlying causes.

The Phase 1 trial is expected to enroll about 40 healthy volunteers, who will be randomly assigned to increasing doses of oral YTX-7739 or dose-matching oral placebo. Collected data will assess YTX-7739s safety and tolerability, as well as its stability and metabolization (pharmacokinetics)inside the body: essentially,how the body affects a medicine.

If results are promising, Yumanity plans to advance YTX-7739 into a Phase 1b proof-of-concept clinical trial in patients, possibly in the second half of 2020.

This Phase 1 trial will provide important validation for the broad application of our technology to help address arguably the most important therapeutic challenges of our time, like that of protect[ing] cells from neurodegeneration,said Richard Peters, MD, PhD, Yumanitys CEO.

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Ana holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Lisbon and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM) in Lisbon, Portugal. She graduated with a BSc in Genetics from the University of Newcastle and received a Masters in Biomolecular Archaeology from the University of Manchester, England. After leaving the lab to pursue a career in Science Communication, she served as the Director of Science Communication at iMM.

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Potential Parkinson's Treatment of Toxic Protein Clumping in Phase 1 Trial, Yumanity Says - Parkinson's News Today

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