Opportunity to License Potential Therapy that Halts Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease

Potential Therapy Halts Progression of Alzheimer's Disease

Inventors at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have developed a new potential therapy for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a stage prior to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), that has the potential to halt the progression from MCI to AD. Alzheimer’s disease has no known cure and affects over 14 million Americans. The use of this technology as an early intervention in the initial diagnosis of MCI may stabilize the neurological condition of patients and avoid progression of AD in a large population of aging patients.

MCI is a stage prior to AD where memory problems become noticeable while other functions remain intact. MCI is associated with neurological cell death in the hippocampus. NICHD inventors found that direct administration of an adenovirus carrying the Carboxypeptidase E (CPE) gene to the hippocampus results in overexpression of the CPE protein in an experimental mouse model of AD. This overexpression averts neurological cell death in the hippocampus, therefore halting MCI’s progression. This technology was effective in mice with normal expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BNDF). This technology may be applicable for patients with BNDF deficiency and no deficiency of BNDF expression.

This technology protects neurons prior to the appearance of cell damage due to accumulation of intracellular tau-containing neurofibrillary tangles and extracellular β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits in the brain.

This technology’s competitive advantages include:

  • Halt the progression from MCI to AD
  • Combination therapy with CPIE and BNDF
  • Neuroprotective prior to the appearance of cell damage

The commercial applications include:

  • Treatment of patients
    • Diagnosed with MCI
    • Diagnosed with neurologic damage to the hippocampus
    • With early signs of AD
  • Combination therapy with BNDF

This technology is available for licensing from NICHD. There is also an opportunity for preclinical co-development of the technology with the NICHD laboratory of Dr. Peng Loh. For more information, please view the abstract here.