ANEW Medical, a UAB spin-off that has licensed two gene therapies to halt the progression of neurodegenerative diseases developed and patented by university researchers, has begun listing on the Nasdaq. The licensed treatments are based on the anti-aging protein klotho, which has been shown in mice to protect against cognitive decline associated with aging and delay the onset of diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Alzheimer’s.
The listing of ANEW Medical on the stock market began last June, an achievement that will allow progress to be made in the development of gene therapy strategies for Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patented by researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (INc-UAB), the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the UAB and the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA).
The licensed treatments are based on the anti-aging protein klotho, which is expressed by the gene of the same name. Researchers from the UAB groups, led by Miguel Chillon and Associacio Bosch, have found in mice that regulation of this protein has a neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, regenerative and myelinating effect, all processes involved in neurodegenerative diseases.
Researchers have already applied klotho gene therapy to Alzheimer’s model mice with a single treatment using non-replicating vectors, called adeno-associated viruses (AAV), injected into the brain or cerebrospinal fluid. The results obtained so far have shown a clinically significant delay in the onset of these diseases. As an alternative to gene therapy, they also envision it working by delivering the exogenous protein.
In the case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in collaboration with the group of Dr. Xavier Navarro, they were also able to delay the pathological processes associated with neurodegeneration by delivering sustained levels of the klotho protein to the motor neurons of muscle tissue, with a single dose administered into the bloodstream.
The agreement signed with ANEW has made it possible to accelerate the preclinical development of the strategy and validate the results in different animal models using the secreted homologous form of the gene. “The studies show very promising results and we aim to find a new treatment that can reach the stage of clinical trials in humans,” point out Assumpcio Bosch and Miguel Chillon.
Patents protecting these research findings have already been granted in Europe, Canada, China and Hong Kong. “We are convinced of the great potential of this therapy and have therefore taken careful steps to protect and expand our intellectual property under license in key global markets,” confirms Joseph Cincoli, CEO of ANEW Medical. “These assets play a vital role in the development of innovative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and ALS.”
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