Benzinga | Oct 29, 2020 07:56AM EDT

Moleculin Biotech Enters Agreement With University Of Campinas In So Paulo, Brazil To 'further enable collaboration into its research on the anti-viral capabilities of its drug candidate WP1122, specifically for the coronavirus.'

Initial information sharing agreement signed to further research into the anti-viral potential of WP1122

HOUSTON, Oct. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Moleculin Biotech, Inc., (NASDAQ:MBRX) ("Moleculin" or the "Company"), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of drug candidates targeting highly resistant tumors and viruses, today announced it has entered into an agreement with the University of Campinas in S?o Paulo, Brazil to further enable collaboration into its research on the anti-viral capabilities of its drug candidate WP1122, specifically for the coronavirus.

Recently the University of Campinas published independent research demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2 infection is supported by elevated glucose levels and that inhibition of glycolysis with 2-deoxy-D-glucose ("2-DG") effectively eliminated viral load in vitro. WP1122 is a pro-drug of 2-DG. The paper was presented in Cell Metabolism journal online (Codo et al., Elevated Glucose Levels Favor SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Monocyte Response through a HIF-1a/Glycolysis-Dependent Axis, Cell Metabolism (2020)), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2020.07.007) after peer-review and reports the findings of a research team at the Laboratory of Immunometabolism, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, Campinas, S?o Paulo, Brazil.

As previously disclosed, this recently published data also further supports the findings published in the scientific journal, Nature (Bojkova, D. et al. Proteomics of SARS-CoV-2-infected host cells reveals therapy targets, Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2332-7 2020), which reports that one of the therapeutic targets in SARS-CoV-2 is glycolysis. This work performed by an independent research team at the G?ethe-University of Frankfurt showed that targeting glycolysis with 2-DG stopped replication of SARS CoV-2 in vitro. These results are consistent with previous research reports demonstrating the antiviral activities of 2-DG in other viruses, and with the Company's own antiviral testing of WP1122. Notwithstanding the available preclinical data, the Company believes that, without the benefit of WP1122's prodrug structure, 2-DG's rapid metabolism and limited drug-like properties prevent it from being sufficiently effective in vivo and that in vivo testing of WP1122 may make its benefits more apparent.

"Adding the University of Campinas to our current collaborations which include The Rega Institute in Belgium and our sponsored research, increases our available resources in developing WP1122," commented Wally Klemp, Chairman and CEO of Moleculin. "We are excited to be working with these great research institutions. We intend to rely on collaborations and identify development partners as well as access grants to support our WP1122 portfolio development as a part of our externally funded pipeline. We believe this approach brings broader virology expertise to the program while extending our cash runway into the second quarter of 2021."

Mr. Klemp added "As we continue to learn more about the available in vivo models for COVID-19, we have identified one in particular that may be best suited for our drug candidate. While we had previously announced plans to use one particular model available through a commercial laboratory, based on input with our members of our Science Advisory Board, we now intend to focus first on a more favored model. Given the high demand for this in vivo model, this may push our timing for a potential Investigational New Drug request from the Food and Drug Administration for a potential COVID -19 clinical trial into the first half of 2021, possibly in the first quarter."