GU licenses use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases
Georgetown University today announces it has exclusively licensed worldwide intellectual property (IP) rights to develop and commercialize uses of tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibitors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases to Axovant Sciences GmbH. The application of TK inhibiting compounds for use in neurodegenerative diseases was discovered by a Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researcher.
Georgetown holds an issued patent and several pending patent applications for the use of select TK inhibitors for the treatment of certain neurodegenerative diseases. Charbel Moussa, MBBS, PhD, scientific and clinical research director for GUMC's Translational Neurotherapeutics Program, is the named inventor on the IP.
"The mechanism by which tyrosine kinase inhibitors affect neurodegenerative disorders appears to involve autophagy in the clearance of neurotoxic proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases," explains Moussa, an assistant professor in GUMC's Department of Neurology.
Moussa collaborated with Fernando Pagan, MD, director of the Movement Disorders Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital who is the principal investigator on a phase II, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, which launched earlier this year to evaluate the safety and tolerability of low doses of nilotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in Parkinson's disease. A second study also was launched for Alzheimer's disease, on which R. Scott Turner, MD, PhD, director of GUMC Memory Disorders Program, is principal investigator.
"Our understanding of the autophagy process in neurodegenerative diseases represents the newest frontier of neurotherapeutic research and changes the paradigm on how we think about these diseases," Moussa says.
Provided by Georgetown University Medical Center
