Aphios Granted Patent For Treatment Of Alzheimer’s Disease

Aphios Corporation recently announced that United States Patent 9,034,347 has been granted to the company’s lead compound to treat neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Hutchinson Disease and Down’s syndrome.

Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Hutchinson’s Disease, Kuru Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, further spongiform encephalopathies and all neurodegenerative diseases in general remain enormous health problems with numerous unmet medical needs. There are limited resources to address these diseases from a therapeutic standpoint. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Hutchinson’s diseases tend to occur in older people and symptoms manifest as the diseases progress. These diseases make individuals less able to take care of themselves. Trevor P. Castor who is the Aphios Corporation’s CEO, said: “It is therefore highly desirable to have simple therapies which can be administered (e.g. oral formulations) without the need for specially trained healthcare providers.”

Castor continued: “Our recent in vitro studies have shown that our lead Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate, APH-1104, a potent analog of Bryostatin-1, is neuroprotective by α-secretase activation via novel PKC isoforms, down-regulation of pro-inflammatory and angiogenic processes and the substitution of β-amyloid for its soluble and harmless relative, sAPP-α at concentrations which are orders of magnitude lower than conventional APP modulators. Our in vivo studies show that we can rapidly restore cognitive performance in AD-transgenic mice by oral administration of an oil-based formulation of Bryostatin-1.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating neurological condition that affects over 4.5 million people in the United States and it represents more than $100 billion in costs, per year nationally. The symptoms of the disease occur because of continued brain tissue atrophy and death. Alzheimer’s begins with short-term memory loss, and it reduces the capacity to do routine tasks. In more advanced stages of the disease, judgment and language skills decline and the emotional field is deregulated. The progression of the disease eventually leads to death. The average time between diagnosis and death is 4 to 8 years but 20 years and more may pass until the disease to run its course.

Researchers believe that Alzheimer’s incidence will continue to grow with the progressive aging populations in Europe, United States and Japan. Estimates say that by 2025, 22 million people in the world (over 8 million Americans) will suffer from the disease.