Research Project
8583226
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Investigational Safety and Toxicity Studies of Subcutaneous COG1410 for Alzheimer's Disease: A Therapeutic Based upon Apolipoprotein-E That is Not Targeted to Amyloid-Beta Background on Alzheimer's Disease: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia and 6th leading cause of death, affecting 5.4 million American patients and their 13 million caregivers. Unlike stroke, heart disease and other diseases whose deaths have been decreasing in recent years, from 2000 to 2006, there was a 47% increase in deaths from AD. This increase shows no signs of stopping as the population of the US age 65 and older is projected to rise from 36 million in 2005 to 87 million by 2050, with a parallel rise in AD patients to 16 million by 2050. Medicare and Medicaid spend $148 Billion or about 20% of their combined programs on the care of AD patients, as there is no effective treatment, and family caregivers spent at least $94 Billion more on caring for relatives with AD. These data strongly support the enormous need to develop an effective anti-Alzheimer's therapeutic to not only reduce pain and suffering of patients and their families, but to also decrease the rapidly growing private and public debts incurred in providing healthcare for these Alzheimer's patients. Application of COG1410 to Alzheimer's Disease: Cognosci has developed an innovative series of neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory COG compounds, including COG1410, which are based upon the structure and activity of apolipoprotein-E-3. Our peer-reviewed publications show that these COG compounds specifically bind to SET, a known inhibitor of Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A). The formation of COG/SET complexes reduces SET's inhibitory action on PP2A thus permitting a re-activation so that levels of PP2A phosphatase activity increase in COG treated cells or animals (Christensen et al. 2011). While PP2A accounts for 70% of all phosphatase activity in the brain, the literature reports that SET levels are significantly increased in AD brains compared to age-matched healthy controls; and that the levels of PP2A phosphatase activity are significantly decreased in AD brains compared to age-matched healthy controls. To regain a healthy balance of SET and PP2A activities in the AD brain, we propose that adding COG1410 will antagonize SET thereby permitting levels of PP2A enzyme activity to increase to healthy levels and to restore the brain to normal. Using our CVN-Alzheimer's mice, we demonstrated that subcutaneous administration of COG1410 resulted in decreased phospho-tau/neurofibrillary tangle-like pathology, decreased amyloid plaque-like pathology, and significantly improved learning and memory behaviors (Vitek et al. 2012a, Vitek et al. 2012b). Additional data provided in this application show that all of these COG1410-mediated changes are significant in our CVN-Alzheimer's model. These data, together with many peer-reviewed publications on the actions of COG compounds in animal models, form the scientific basis for this translational proposal to bring COG1410 to the Alzheimer's population. Work Plan Overview: To translate COG1410 to the clinic and reduce the risks associated with commercialization (please see details in the attached proposal), we are proposing to perform all studies necessary to receive approval of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for subcutaneous administration of COG1410 for an Alzheimer's indication, followed by performance of Phase 1 human clinical trials. To achieve this goal, this Phase 1 SBIR application will perform the dose range finding studies with subcutaneously administered COG1410 in rats and dogs so as to determine the low, middle and high doses of SC-COG1410 that will be used in Phase 2 SBIR studies. Phase 2 SBIR studies will employ low, middle and high doses of SC-COG1410 on a daily basis for 28-days in definitive and GLP studies of pharmacokinetics and toxicokinetics in rats and dogs. The results of of these PK/TK studies, together with safety studies already completed, and GMP-synthesis, packaging and stability evaluations of COG1410, will be incorporated into an IND package and submitted to the FDA for approval. Once approved, then Phase2C/Phase 3-SBIR studies of clinical Phase 1A single ascending dose and Phase 1B repeat ascending dose studies of subcutaneous COG1410 in human subjects can be completed. With clinical studies showing that subcutaneous COG1410 can be safely given to human subjects, we will have achieved a significant milestone that reduces the risks and enables substantive commercialization activities to proceed.
