Benzinga | Jun 8, 2021 08:31AM EDT

Annovis Bio Announces Prelim. Data Demonstrating ANVS401 'protects certain nerve cells from dying after being infected by gingipains'

Annovis Bio, Inc. (NYSE:ANVS) ("Annovis" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage drug platform company addressing Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases, today announced preliminary data demonstrating ANVS401, the Company's lead drug candidate, protects certain nerve cells from dying after being infected by gingipains, the virulence factors of Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis), which have been identified as pathogenic effectors in AD.

"We initiated this study last year after filing our patent related to treating neurological injuries due to infections," Maria L. Maccecchini, Ph.D., CEO of Annovis Bio. "Researchers have noted the similarities between many types of infections of the brain, including infections resulting from COVID-19. These short and long-term neurological problems are caused because invasion of the brain by a virus or bacterium causes levels of neurotoxic proteins to rise, which consequently impairs axonal transport, induces inflammation, and leads to nerve cell death. Because ANVS401 has been shown to protect nerve cells against the ill effects of an increase of neurotoxic proteins in the brain, we believe our compound could help with the treatment of neurological diseases associated with bacterial and viral infections, and these latest data support that thesis."

Once the brain is infected with P. gingivalis, two proteases attack and kill nerve cells. Annovis Bio demonstrated that P. gingivalis and its associated proteases infect and kill nerve cells and ANVS401 protects the infected cells from dying. ANVS401 has quite a large impact on the viability of astrocytes in the presence of gingipains. At the concentration of 1nM gingipain infected cells were completely protected from the enzyme while only around 20% of the control cells survived. ANVS401 is shown to protect cells from dying from the P. gingivalis protease Rgp at very low concentrations.

Microglia and neuroblastoma cell lines are not affected as both are quite resistant to gingipains. As expected, since neither are dying, ANVS401 has no impact on the microglia or neuroblastoma survival in the presence of gingipains.