NEW YORK, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Michael J. Fox
Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) announced $1.2 million in total
awards to four research teams working to advance potentially
disease-modifying therapeutic targets for PD along the drug development
pipeline. The funding was awarded under the Novel Approaches to Drug
Discovery for Parkinson's Disease program, made possible by generous
leadership funding from Elan Corporation, plc (NYSE: ELN), a
neuroscience-based biotechnology company.
"For successful translation into real-world PD therapies, early stage
therapeutic approaches must be chaperoned through the necessary preclinical
and clinical stages of drug development," said Sarah Orsay, MJFF's CEO.
"The Foundation uses creative strategies to provide the opportunity for
researchers working on novel therapeutic strategies to partner with first
class, large industry organizations. If projects funded under Novel
Approaches to Drug Discovery for Parkinson's Disease warrant further
development, Elan has the option to participate more actively and further
the progress made by the awardees -- taking us that much closer to our
shared goal of delivering new treatments to patients."
Novel Approaches complements the Foundation's annual Target Validation
initiative, whose awardees were announced last month. Whereas the latter
program supports initial work to determine the validity of cellular
proteins and pathways as potentially promising drug targets, Novel
Approaches seeks to push work forward in developing therapies against
targets that already have some promising initial data. Both programs
provide critical resources for underfunded stages of the drug development
process and reflect the Foundation's emphasis on bridging early discovery
work and late-stage translational research to reduce industry's risk around
investment in new PD therapeutics.
The Novel Approaches program is also an important element of the
Foundation's increasing engagement with pharmaceutical and biotech company
partners. This engagement is multi-pronged, including not only funding
industry researchers under any Foundation initiative, but also working with
companies as strategic partners to accelerate the rate at which new PD
therapeutics are brought to market. Awardees under Novel Approaches include
both academic and industry scientists.
"We are very pleased to work side by side with The Michael J. Fox
Foundation in the pursuit of effective treatment options for patients
suffering from Parkinson's disease," said Dale Schenk, PhD, Elan's Chief
Scientific Officer. "We congratulate the awardees and are impressed that
the Novel Approaches program has attracted such high-quality proposals for
potential treatment of Parkinson's disease. We look forward to working
together to move us closer to a therapy that can slow or stop progression
of this terrible disease."
Awardee Asa Abeliovich, PhD, of Columbia University is targeting the
autophagy pathway, a cellular pathway involved in clearing away protein
such as alpha-synuclein, whose clumping is a hallmark of PD pathology.
Disruption of this pathway in animals leads to loss of dopamine neurons.
Dr. Abeliovich will test small-molecule drugs that can enhance the
autophagy pathway to see if they can reduce deficits seen in animal models.
Neil Howell, PhD, of San Diego-based MIGENIX Corporation will work in
rodent models to optimize administration of the compound MX-4565, a non-
feminizing estrogen analog that has been shown to be effective in
protecting nerve cells from toxic stresses.
Peter Jenner, PhD, of Proximagen Neuroscience in the United Kingdom
will investigate the potential of the protein osteopontin (OPN) as a PD
treatment. Expression of OPN is decreased in PD, and Dr. Jenner's team has
previously shown that it is neuroprotective for dopaminergic neurons. The
researchers will now investigate a gene therapy approach to deliver the
protein to the brains of rodent models of Parkinson's using viral vectors.
Pamela Maher, PhD, of the Salk Institute in La Jolla has identified a
neuroprotective small molecule called fisetin. At least part of fisetin's
neuroprotective effect is due to its ability to maintain levels of
glutathione (GSH), a molecule cells produce naturally as a defense against
oxidative stress. There is good evidence that GSH levels decrease in PD,
and this decrease may contribute to disease progression. Dr. Maher's team
will use medicinal chemistry to create fisetin derivatives with improved
potency and efficacy, and then will test these derivatives in cell-based
and rodent models of PD.
Grant abstracts and researcher bios are available on the Foundation's
Web site, http://www.michaeljfox.org. The selection of awardees was made
exclusively by the Foundation via its standard peer-review process.
About The Michael J. Fox Foundation
Founded in 2000, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
is dedicated to ensuring the development of a cure for Parkinson's disease
within this decade through an aggressively funded research agenda. The
Foundation has funded more than $95 million in research to date, either
directly or through partnerships.
About Elan
Elan Corporation, plc (NYSE: ELN) is a neuroscience-based biotechnology
company committed to making a difference in the lives of patients and their
families by dedicating itself to bringing innovations in science to fill
significant unmet medical needs that continue to exist around the world.
Elan shares trade on the New York, London and Dublin Stock Exchanges. For
additional information about the company, please visit http://www.elan.com.
|
