The Michael J. Fox Foundation has awarded a research grant for supporting the research team headed by Professor Mart Saarma at the Institute of Biotechnology, who together with HermoPharma Company is developing a new Parkinson's disease therapy. The funding will be used to study the therapeutic potential of the neurotrophic factor CDNF in preclinical research on rodent and non-human primate models of Parkinson's disease.
Professor Mart Saarma coordinates the CDNF study. His team at the Institute of Biotechnology originally discovered a novel neurotrophic factor CDNF (short for Cerebral Dopamine Neurotrophic Factor). Earlier preclinical research on CDNF, carried out in collaboration with Prof. Raimo K. Tuominen group at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, has provided highly promising results when comparing the neuroprotective and neurorestorative properties of CDNF with those of other neurotrophic factors, such as glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). GDNF has been linked to Parkinson´s disease and it has been previously tested in several clinical trials.
The team involved in the project includes top experts in the pharmacology and neuropharmacology Professors Raimo K. Tuominen and Pekka Männistö from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki. Safety and efficacy studies of CDNF in non-human primates will be carried out by Drs. Judy Cameron at the University of Pittsburgh and by Dr. Zhiming Zhang at the Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Centers of Excellence, University of Kentucky. Neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Penn (University of Illinois & CNS Therapeutics, Inc.) has extensive experience on clinical trials with neurotrophic factors and he helps to design methods for intracerebral injection of therapeutic proteins. The results from the CDNF project are expected to provide preclinical proof-of-concept data on the safety and efficacy of the CDNF molecule and should allow to initiate Phase I/II clinical trials in Helsinki for treating Parkinson´s disease in humans.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today. "The Michael J. Fox Foundation funding is extremely important to carry out preclinical studies. I am also very proud that we have close collaboration with HermoPharma Ltd, and that we have such a professional and international team. I am sure that will rapidly finalize the pre-clinical research studies in order to start clinical trial.", said Professor Mart Saarma.
Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience at the Institute of Biotechnology: http://www.biocenter.helsinki.fi/bi/
Hermo Pharma Ltd: http://www.hermopharma.com/