Number of cases where people are affected with neurodegenerative diseases have been growing at a substantial pace. Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are the most common neurodegenerative diseases found across the world. Various biopharmaceutical firms are working to discover and develop novel therapies to minimize the impact of these diseases on human life.  

The latest contribution to this trend was done by Yumanity Therapeutics, a US based biotechnology firm focused at serving people affected with neurodegenerative diseases across the world, reportedly announced that the dosage of the first subject cohort in a Phase 1 clinical study evaluating the tolerability and safety of YTX-7739 in healthy candidates.

YTX-7739, the lead investigational treatment of Yumanity, is built to stop Stearoyl-CoA-Desaturase (SCD), a validated biologic target which recently showed potential in the field of neurodegenerative diseases by protecting the cells from a-synuclein toxicity, the foremost driver of the Parkinson’s disease.

Chief Scientific Officer at Yumanity Therapeutics, Kenneth Rhodes, Ph.D. stated that development of effective treatments for individuals suffering from devastating neurodegenerative diseases has always been a challenge since very few novel targets and hypotheses have been explored. The company advanced its SCD inhibitor YTX-7739, into clinical development due to the recent evidences found in the company.

Rhodes added that these evidences demonstrate YTX’s potential for protecting cells from a-synuclein toxicity. The company looks forward to completely characterizing potential clinical usage of YTX-7739, which is clearly different for the Parkinson’s disease treatments that are currently available, as they only mitigate the symptoms and not its underlying causes.     

The dose-escalation, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover trial is aimed at evaluating the tolerability, pharmacokinetics and safety of single ascending YTX-7739 doses in healthy adult volunteers.

A second trial, evaluating multiple ascending doses in the healthy adult volunteers as well as patients with Parkinson’s disease, would follow. The Phase 1 single ascending dose trial would enroll approximately 40 participants. After the completion of Phase 1 trial, the company hopes to enhance YTX-7739 into Phase 1b proof-of-concept clinical study during the last two quarters of 2020.     

Chief Executive Officer at Yumanity Therapeutics, Richard Peters, M.D., Ph.D., stated that since the company’s inception, uncovering novel targets and pathways in order to tackle significant medical issues has been the its goal.

Peters added that this phase 1 trial would provide crucial validation for a wide application of the company’s technology to further help address possibly the most crucial therapeutic challenges of the present. 

Source credit: http://www.yumanity.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Yumanity_Phase-1-Trial-Initiation_Press-Release_FINAL.pdf