Open Access Government’s Post

Our #4 spot goes to the V-Bio Ventures feature on Muna Therapeutics which develops therapies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Muna's approach has really caught our readers’ attention. They focus on microglia, which are involved in both clearing misfolded proteins as well as creating inflammatory responses, worsening pathology. "Our goal is to change the treatment paradigm for patients with diseases that affect memory and cognition, which form the essence of who we are as people." https://lnkd.in/g2ru33Ds #memoryloss #neurodegenerativediseases #alzheimers #parkinsons #multiplesclerosis #biotech #drugdiscovery

#neurodegenerativedisorders #Tau #synapses #cells #therapy Therapies for Tau-associated neurodegenerative disorders: targeting molecules, synapses, and cells https://lnkd.in/g-KWE4q3 University of Cambridge Advances in experimental and computational technologies continue to grow rapidly to provide novel avenues for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. Despite this, there remain only a handful of drugs that have shown success in late-stage clinical trials for Tau-associated neurodegenerative disorders. The most commonly prescribed treatments are symptomatic treatments such as cholinesterase inhibitors and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockers that were approved for use in Alzheimer’s disease. This mini-review will highlight five key avenues of academic and industrial research for identifying therapeutic strategies to treat Tau-associated neurodegenerative disorders. These avenues include investigating (1) the broad class of chemicals termed “small molecules”; (2) adaptive immunity through both passive and active antibody treatments; (3) innate immunity with an emphasis on microglial modulation; (4) synaptic compartments with the view that Tau-associated neurodegenerative disorders are synaptopathies. Although this mini-review will focus on Alzheimer’s disease due to its prevalence, it will also argue the need to target other tauopathies, as through understanding Alzheimer’s disease as a Tau-associated neurodegenerative disorder, we may be able to generalize treatment options. For this reason, added detail linking back specifically to Tau protein as a direct therapeutic target will be added to each topic.

Are tau-targeting therapies the future of Alzheimer’s treatment? 🧩 This is what Asceneuron SA thinks and it is not alone as Novo Holdings Ltd led its $100 million series C round yesterday to advance its Alzheimer’s candidate ASN51 in phase 2 clinical trials. Asceneuron's approach to tackling Alzheimer's disease sets it apart in the competitive landscape of neurodegenerative disease treatments. 🧠 While approved therapies for Alzheimer’s, such as Leqembi, target amyloid-beta aggregates, Asceneuron focuses on tau proteins, which play a critical role in the progression of Alzheimer's. Essentially, ASN51 works by stabilizing tau proteins in a state that is less likely to form harmful aggregates, helping to maintain normal neuronal function and potentially slowing the progression of neurodegenerative disease. 💡 So is ASN51 the future for Alzheimer’s? Let’s find out! ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/dhVQjtdv #Alzheimerstreatment #neurodegenerativediseases #Alzheimersresearch #neuroscience #medicalresearch #biotechnews #healthcareadvances Barbara Angehrn Pavik | Naveed Siddiqi | Henrijette Richter | Sofinnova Partners

Background: Parkinson disease (PD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder affecting dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). Neuroinflammation has a vital role in PD pathophysiology. Objectives: This study assesses whether the neuroinflammatory molecular and signaling pathways could be associated with PD’s progression and clinical manifestations. Materials & Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus databases were investigated from 2006 until December 2023 to find relevant studies. All observational studies written in English and reporting qualitative or quantitative information on the relationship between neuroinflammation and PD were included in this review. Results: Finally, 41 papers were involved in the systematic review. According to the involved studies, it is suggested that tumor necrosis factor-α, C-reactive protein, microsomal prostaglandin E synthase1, toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4), CCL23, CCL25, TNF-receptor superfamily member 9, EV-derived cytokines, transforming growth factor alpha, vascular endothelial growth factor A, SH-SY5Y, TLR 2/4, miR-485-3p, leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, and α-synuclein may be upregulated in the PD patients. Also, the activity of astrocytes and microglial cells was reported to be increased in PD patients through different mechanisms.  Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the neurodegeneration in PD could be initiated by α-synuclein protein aggregation and the activation of astrocytes and microglial cells, which leads to neuroinflammation characterized by inflammatory responses in neurons. Finally, chronic neuroinflammation could be the cause of dopaminergic neuronal death in SN. The impact of both single and all factors involved in neuroinflammation was assessed to plan further studies in a particular pathway to intercept the onset of inflammatory pathways in favor of therapeutic purposes.    #CReactiveProtein #TumorNecrosisFactorα, #αSynuclein, #TollLikeReceptor2, #TLR9

Roche announced today that its Elecsys pTau217 assay received Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This blood test, which is being developed in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company, will be used to help identify the presence or absence of amyloid pathology in individuals, which can help ensure they are able to receive appropriate care. This may include participation in clinical trials or access to approved disease-modifying therapies. If approved, the test could help rapidly broaden access to a more timely and accurate diagnosis and potentially mitigate the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on people and society. “The incidence of dementia is growing worldwide, with 75 percent of cases remaining undiagnosed. Consequently, there is a critical role for Diagnostics to play in addressing this global health challenge,” said Matt Sause, CEO of Roche Diagnostics. “We believe pTau217 is going to be crucial in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, a condition where Roche Diagnostics is committed to improving the lives of patients worldwide. We plan to leverage our installed base of diagnostic systems, which is the largest in the world, to ensure we are able to create access to this test for those who need it the most.” “The development of the Elecsys pTau217 plasma assay is another milestone in our collaboration with Roche Diagnostics that will advance the Alzheimer’s diagnostic ecosystem,” said Anne White, executive vice president of Eli Lilly and Company, and president of Lilly Neuroscience. “We’re excited to help meet the growing need for additional diagnostic tools to enable a timely and accurate diagnosis for people with Alzheimer’s disease.” pTau217, which is a phosphorylated fragment of the protein tau, is a biomarker that has shown the ability in research settings to distinguish Alzheimer’s disease from other neurodegenerative disorders and has shown strong performance relative to other biomarkers. As global leaders in Alzheimer’s innovation, Roche and Lilly hope that this collaboration can bring additional speed and scale to testing and diagnosis in this important area of unmet medical need. #Biomarker #Diagnosis #Dementia #Alzheimers #Neuroscience #RocheDiagnostics #Lilly #Roche 👉 Roche granted FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for blood test to support earlier Alzheimer's disease diagnosis

Alternative splicing of the Insulin Receptor (IR) gene generates two isoforms, IRA and IRB, by comparison. Indeed, IRB differs from IRA by the inclusion of exon 11 which encodes a 12-amino acid sequence at jthe C-terminusof the IR α-subunit. The IR isoforms show different functional features and most significantly here a greatly reduced affinity of insulin for the A variant compared with the B form results in relative insulin resistance: a fact that may have significant implications in the role of role of cerebral blood vessels that may lead to a “comprehensive model of brain insulin dysfunction in Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders. So in this scientific commentary the authors Timothy M. Hughes and Suzanne Craft (Dept. of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest Univ. School of Med., Winston-Salem, NC, USA) refer to ‘Cerebrovascular insulin receptors are defective in Alzheimer’s disease’ by Leclerc et al. (https://lnkd.in/gpCGnrre).

https://lnkd.in/eJSp_sFX Join our fantastic team of scientists as we pioneer PROTAC degrader molecules in devastating neurological diseases! ARV-102 is the first oral/ BBB penetrant PROTAC in clinical development for PSP/ PD. Come work with us to pioneer degraders in Huntington's, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, and more. The time is now for small molecule degradation of mHTT, tau, alpha-synuclein, neuroinflammatory proteins! We can uniformly distribute across the brain where genomic modalities struggle to go after oral dosing. #PROTAC;#Arvinas

New research from the University of Toronto, led by Dr Jen Gommerman and Angela Wang, suggests that B cell therapies may also have a neuroprotective effect in multiple sclerosis. Their study has highlighted a potential role for a protein called B cell survival factor, or BAFF, in this process. Further research will now be conducted to understand how these molecules contribute to neuroprotection in MS. #multiplesclerosis #neuroprotection #bcells

June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. To demonstrate NYU’s continued commitment to developing new therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, Einar Sigurdsson’s Lab at NYU Langone Health recently published its most recent data on synucleinopathies in a high-impact neuroscience journal. The study focuses on using a novel approach of single-domain antibody degraders to drive the destruction of a protein called α-synuclein involved in #ParkinsonsDisease. This is a major step forward in terms of in vivo experiments showing that this kind of antibody-based therapy has clinical potential. 📖 Read the paper: https://lnkd.in/ePFrHkuc 🤝 Learn more about this exciting technology and how you could partner with us ➡ https://lnkd.in/eZV-g6KM or contact business development manager Amit Duvshani, PhD or licensing associate Olivia Zelony, Candidate RTTP. #ParkinsonsDisease #synucleinopathies #antibody #AlzheimersAwarenessMonth #BrainAwarenessMonth #neurodegenerativediseases #neurodegenerative

👨⚕️ BPGbio, Inc.'s Clinical Pipeline (updated) 👩⚕️ BPGbio, Inc.'s strong focus on mitochondrial medicine and protein homeostasis is emphasized by our impressive clinical pipeline. Our biology-first, AI-powered, NAi Interrogative Biology® Platform has already advanced a robust pipeline from pre-clinical to phase 3 drug candidates and R&D assets in oncology, neurology and rare diseases. We maintain our strong focus on diseases that represent an unmet need in medicine. Through our strategic global network of hospitals and academic medical centers, BPGbio, Inc. continues to add diversity and depth to a 100,000+ sample rich biobank leading to more discoveries. We continue to strengthen our pipeline while improving research outcomes with lower incremental costs for patients and healthcare systems around the world. For more information about our pipeline please visit www.bpgbio.com/pipeline More information about the NAi Interrogative Biology® Platform can be found at www.bpgbio.com/platform #ai #drugdiscovery #mitochondrialmedicine #proteinhomeostasis #proteostasis #E2notE3 #pipeline #biopharma #clinicaltrial #glioblastoma #pancreaticcancer #squamouscellcarcinoma #epidermolysisbullosa #sarcopenia #huntingtonsdisease #parkinsonsdisease #diabetes #cancer #aidrugdiscovery #therapeutics #biobank #NAiInterrogativeBiology #oncology #neurology #raredisease