Cantabio Pharmaceuticals to Present Positive In Vivo Efficacy Results


Cantabio Pharmaceuticals Inc. recently announced that Dr. Gergely Toth, Cantabio’s CEO, will present results from the company’s DJ-1 protein targeting small molecule pharmacological chaperone therapeutic program at the XXV International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Ljubljana, Slovenia on September 2-6, 2018.

Loss of DJ-1 protein function has been linked to the onset of a variety of diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and type II diabetes. The DJ-1 protein is considered to be one of the primary therapeutic targets for Parkinson’s disease, as it is genetically linked to the onset of familial Parkinson’s disease.

The presentations will describe the positive therapeutic efficacy in cellular and in a MPTP mice model of Parkinson’s disease of Cantabio’s novel DJ-1 protein targeting small molecule drug candidate. The presented novel compound alleviated neuroblastoma cell toxicity mediated by paraquat, MPP+, 6-OHDA and MG132 treatments. In addition, the compound significantly protected from dopamine loss and totally alleviated dopaminergic neuronal death in a MPTP mice model of Parkinson’s disease when administered orally.

Cantabio’s CEO, Dr. Gergely Toth, said “We are excited to present overwhelmingly strong in vivo efficacy results from a mice model of Parkinson’s disease of one of our orally bioavailable DJ-1 protein targeting small molecule pharmacological chaperone drug candidates. In fact, in the study this drug candidate provided remarkable protection from the neurodegeneration of dopaminergic neurons, which is a critical hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. These results provide us confidence in the further development of this drug candidate, and we are in the process of testing it in additional disease models of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease in order to advance it toward clinical studies. The results provide substantial validation of our in-house DJ-1 drug discovery platform’s ability to generate lead drug candidates and for our DJ-1 targeting therapeutic program’s potential for becoming a disease modifying therapeutic for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Cantabio is focused on bringing novel, first-in-class drug candidates into clinical trials and beyond through the discovery and development of innovative pharmacological chaperone and protein delivery based therapeutics, focusing on protein systems implicated in neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and oxidative stress. For more information, visit www.cantabio.com.