Neurotez receives U.S. patent for Leptin to treat Alzheimer's

Jul 30 2012

Neurotez, Inc. today announced the grant of U.S. Patent number 8,227,408 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering the company's lead product candidate, Leptin. The patent protects use of the hormone Leptin for treating a progressive cognitive disease, disorder or condition, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), resulting from accumulation of an amyloid peptide or for improving resilience of cognitive function by modulating the accumulation of the amyloid peptide in brain.   

Compelling preclinical in vitro data and in vivo and interventional studies, along with human epidemiological studies, suggest that Leptin can be a promising therapy for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. It is well documented that brain lipids are intricately involved in amyloid beta-related pathogenic pathways in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Leptin may have a physiologic role as a liporegulatory hormone for neural cells, and several molecular targets have been identified related to metabolic pathways that mediate Leptin's action. Patent issuance comes as Neurotez completes GMP manufacturing of recombinant Leptin and prepares for IND-enabling studies.

"This kind of innovation ignites tremendous excitement for the development of new therapeutic modalities for this devastating disorder," said Nikolaos Tezapsidis, President & CEO of Neurotez, Inc. "The uniqueness of our therapy is that we are dealing with the replacement of an endogenous pluripotent hormone, that we have shown it improves cognition, and ameliorates pathobiology".

"The issuing of a patent for using Leptin as an agent to prevent pathologic amyloidogenesis is an exciting development for the languishing field of Alzheimer's. Leptin has been established to play an important role in controlling the formation of beta-amyloid plaques and preventing tau hyper-phosphorylation. Thus using Leptin, particularly in at-risk individuals who are Leptin-deficient, will provide a treatment and prevention strategy for Alzheimer's disease. We are poised to initiate the clinical studies to test that," said Dr. Wes Ashford, Clinical Professor (affiliated) at Stanford University, Senior Research Scientist at VA Palo Alto and acting CMO at Neurotez.

"New approaches to treating Alzheimer's Disease are desperately needed. Leptin's dual action mechanism (targeting abeta and tau) may provide an advantage over therapies with single mechanism, says Lex Van der Ploeg", CSO at Rhythm and Director at Neurotez.

About the patent, Dr George Perry, Dean at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Director at Neurotez, said: "Leptin-based therapy focuses on a number of highly successful studies showing metabolic alteration is at the root of Alzheimer's disease"

Source: Neurotez