Benzinga | Sep 23, 2021 08:06AM EDT

Inhibikase Therapeutics Reports Received ~$385K Grant From US National Institutes Of Health To Evaluate IkT-148009 For Treatment Of Multiple System Atrophy

Inhibikase Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IKT) ("Inhibikase" or "Company"), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics to modify the course of Parkinson's disease and related disorders, today announced that the Company has been awarded a $385,388 research grant from the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS), an Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to evaluate the therapeutic potential of IkT-148009, the Company's lead c-Abl inhibitor, in a novel preclinical model for Multiple System Atrophy (MSA).



MSA is a rare, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder affecting both the central and autonomic nervous systems. MSA is characterized by pathological alpha-synuclein aggregation, which may lead to oligodendroglial cell dysfunction and degeneration of neurons. Symptoms of MSA reflect this progressive degeneration and manifest as failures in the autonomic nervous system (i.e. digestion, blood flow and pressure, etc.), Parkinsonism cerebellar ataxia, and pyramidal signs. There are currently no approved therapies to slow or halt the progression of MSA and there is no cure.

In work conducted in collaboration with the Laboratory of Jeffrey Kordower Ph.D., founding director of the Arizona State University Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, it was established that pathological alpha-synuclein in oligodendroglial cells contains the same hallmarks of c-Abl activation as in Parkinson's disease. Namely, the phosphorylation at a specific tyrosine residue in the pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates1. This grant will allow Inhibikase to evaluate the mechanism of the MSA disease process in a novel rodent model to determine if IkT-148009 could have the same therapeutic impact on the disease process as it has in models of Parkinson's disease. A complementary effort is underway in a second rodent model of MSA in collaboration with Erwan Bezard, Ph.D., INSERM Research Director, Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Bordeaux and non-executive director of Motac Neuroscience.

"MSA affects approximately 20,000 people in the U.S. with no meaningful therapies approved to slow or halt the progression of disease," commented Milton Werner, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Inhibikase Therapeutics. "This grant will help us to model and understand the mechanisms that drive MSA and we are pleased to be recognized by our scientific peers at NINDS and NIH. Simultaneously, we will work in collaboration with leading experts in the field to establish the regulatory framework to advance IkT-148009 into clinical development for MSA. We believe that the continued support from government and non-profit organizations serve to further validate the potential of our science and we look forward to advancing our pipeline to treat neurodegenerative disorders."