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   Alzheimer's News Today   
   ABOUT ALZHEIMER’S   
   ALZHEIMER’S CLINICAL TRIALS   
      
   $1.7M Grant Given to Move Therapy Targeting Cannabinoid Receptor into Clinical   
   Trials in Alzheimer’s Patients   
   SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 Charles Moore   
   BY CHARLES MOORE IN NEWS.   
      
      
   NeuroTherapia, a Cleveland Clinic spin-off biotech company, has received a   
   $1.7 million funding commitment from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery   
   Foundation to advance its lead drug candidate NTRX-07 — a selective   
   cannabinoid type 2 (CB2) receptor    
   addflogoagonist that can be orally administered — toward human clinical   
   trials.   
      
   This therapy targets a cannabinoid receptor in the brain,  a new approach for   
   treating Alzheimer’s and other neurologic diseases. Cannabinoid receptors   
   are the same ones that are targeted in medical marijuana therapy, but NTRX-07   
   is not a cannabis (   
   marijuana) derivative.   
      
   Immune cells, including microglia within the central nervous system (CNS),   
   express CB2 receptors. (Microglia are a type of glial cell located throughout   
   the brain and spinal cord that from part of the central nervous system and are   
   the primary immune    
   cells of that system, acting as the main inflammatory cell type in the brain.)   
      
   NeuroTherapia reports that CB2 receptors on microglia, when activated, can   
   modulate immune cell migration and cytokine release, thereby decreasing   
   pro-inflammatory responses, and that the ideal therapeutic candidate will have   
   high affinity for the CB2    
   receptor while avoiding the adverse psychotropic effects (i.e., getting high)   
   that accompany cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor-based therapies. NTRX-07 is   
   also able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, providing for high expression   
   levels in the CNS.    
   Consequently, CB2 receptors have become the subject of research as a potential   
   therapeutic target to treat various neuro-inflammatory disorders.   
      
   NTRX-07, developed as a potent and selective CB2 receptor agonist that can be   
   orally administered, has shown capacity to lessen neuroinflammation in   
   preclinical disease models, thereby protecting neurons from damage and death.   
   The company also reported    
   that multiple preclinical studies have demonstrated NTRX-07’s ability to   
   promote neuronal survival through decreasing pro-inflammatory microglial   
   activity, with its efficacy having been established in multiple neuropathic   
   pain models, including    
   chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), nerve ligation, and complex   
   regional pain syndrome (CRPS) induced by ischemic injury.   
      
   Mohamed Naguib and Joseph Foss   
   Mohamed Naguib and Joseph Foss, founders of NeuroTherapia. (Photo courtesy of   
   Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation)   
   Moreover, NeuroTherapia said NTRX-07 has been shown to improve memory loss   
   observed in Alzheimer’s disease rodent models, and that no in vivo   
   toxicology or psychomimetic effects have been observed. NeuroTherapia has   
   initiated IND-enabling studies with    
   the goal of initiating the human clinical trials of NTRX-07 in mid-2017.   
      
   “The protection of neurons from the damaging effects of inflammation caused   
   by microglial over-activation is a novel approach to treating Alzheimer’s   
   disease,” Joseph Foss, director of Clinical Research for General   
   Anesthesiology at the Cleveland    
   Clinic, and co-founder and chief medical officer of NeuroTherapia, said in a   
   press release. “We are excited to be partnering with the ADDF on the   
   development of NTRX-07 for this devastating disease.”   
      
   Multiple preclinical studies published by Mohamed Naguib, a professor of   
   Anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, and   
   co-founder and chief scientific officer of NeuroTherapia, have demonstrated   
   that NTRX-07 reduces    
   neuroinflammation caused by microglia, limiting the progression of   
   Alzheimer’s disease, and that treatment with the compound in mice restored   
   cognition, memory and synaptic plasticity — a key foundation of learning and   
   memory. With the announced    
   funding from the ADDF, NeuroTherapia will complete regulatory studies needed   
   to initiate a clinical trial.   
      
   “The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation is committed to supporting new   
   therapeutic approaches with the most potential to impact Alzheimers and other   
   causes of dementia,”  Howard Fillit, MD, the geriatrician and neuroscientist   
   who has led the    
   ADDF since its founding as its executive director and chief science officer,   
   said in the release. “Drugs that combat neuroinflammation are a major part   
   of our research portfolio, and we look forward to working with the team at   
   NeuroTherapia to advance    
   NTRX-07.”   
      
   NeuroTherapia was created by Cleveland Clinic Innovations to advance the   
   research of Drs. Naguib and Foss, who are working to develop drugs that focus   
   on microglia. These central nervous system immune cells can promote   
   inflammation in the brain — a    
   hallmark of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and other   
   neurodegenerative diseases.   
      
   Alzheimer’s disease is the only top 10 cause of death that cannot be   
   prevented, cured or slowed, affecting an estimated affects 44 million people   
   globally.   
      
       
      
   Sources:   
   Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation   
   NeuroTherapia, Inc.   
   Cleveland Clinic   
   TAGGED ALZHEIMER'S DRUG DISCOVERY FOUNDATION, CANNABINOID RECEPTORS, CB2   
   RECEPTOR, MICROGLIA, NEUROTHERAPIA, NTRX-07.   
      
      
   Charles Moore   
   Charles is a force to be reckoned with in the world of print and new media.   
   From an interview with him in LowEndMac: ”His articles, features, and   
   commentaries have appeared in more than 40 magazines, newspapers and websites   
   in Canada, the US, the UK,    
   and Australia. . . a columnist for The Halifax Daily News and the Saint John   
   Telegraph Journal, Atlantic Fisherman, and news editor and columnist for   
   Applelinks.com, a columnist and contributing editor for MacOpinion and   
   PBCentral, as well as writing for    
   Low End Mac.” Charles serves as the Senior Section Editor for the Science   
   and Research section of BioNews Texas and contributes science-related articles   
   on a daily basis.   
      
      
   https://alzheimersnewstoday.com/2016/09/28/alzheimers-drug-targe   
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