CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., July 20 /PRNewswire/ — Adenosine Therapeutics, LLC announced today the award of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the Department of Health and Human Services at the National Institutes of Health for further study of its compounds in models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The grant, titled “A2A Adenosine Receptor Agonist for the Treatment of IBD,” was awarded to Adenosine Therapeutics, LLC in partnership with the University of Virginia. It will fund development and testing of ATL- 146e, and a second-generation orally active compound as new therapies for the treatment of IBD. The amount of the award is $640,879 over a two-year period.
“ATL-146e is currently in clinical development as a cardiac imaging agent. This project supports the pre-clinical basis for further clinical development of our A2A agonists in the treatment of illnesses that involve acute and chronic inflammatory responses,” said Joel Linden, Co-founder of Adenosine Therapeutics.
Cominelli M.D., Ph.D., Director, Digestive Health Center of Excellence at University of Virginia Health System, and his colleagues at the at the University of Virginia have found that ATL-146e exerts potent anti- inflammatory and tissue-protective effects in rabbit models of ulcerative colitis, a severe and sometimes debilitating type of IBD. The grant will be used to expand the development of ATL-146e and second-generation orally active A2A agonists using a mouse model of spontaneous IBD. ATL-146e is part of a family of selective agonists of A2A adenosine receptors that exhibit potent anti-inflammatory effects and for which the company owns the composition of matter and use patents.
“Over one million people in the U.S. suffer from IBD and the need for effective non-steroidal therapeutic alternatives remains an important unmet medical need,” said Robert Capon, Chief Executive Officer.
“Current treatments for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are of limited efficacy and associated with significant side effects. In addition, large portions of IBD patients require surgery to control their symptoms. Adenosine receptor agonists may provide a novel therapeutic approach with high efficacy and low incidence of side effects for those affected by these devastating diseases,” said Fabio Cominelli, Co-Investigator. “We are particularly encouraged by our pre-clinical in vivo experimental studies showing high efficacy of ATL-146e in models of experimental IBD.”
Adenosine Therapeutics focuses on the discovery and development of novel pharmaceutical products that target adenosine receptor subtypes. Candidates for drug development are identified and screened using the company’s state-of- the-art adenosine receptor screening platform technology. The company was founded with the goal of bringing new adenosine-receptor selective drugs into clinical trials for a broad range of potential indications. These drug indications include inflammatory indications, sepsis, heart attack, Ischemia- reperfusion injury, vascular injury, spinal cord injury, organ transplantation, COPD, asthma, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, retinopathy, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and site-specific angiogenesis. The company’s most advanced drug development program is in Phase II clinical development.
Source: Adenosine Therapeutics, LLC
