Australian biotech company, Filamon Limited has announced a potential “major breakthrough” in the search for effective dementia treatment.
The clinical-stage company, which focuses on anti-inflammatory drugs for chronic degenerative diseases associated with ageing, has developed ALPHA-003, a drug designed to minimise brain damage before it occurs.
This is unlike existing dementia treatments that focus on mitigating the consequences of brain cell damage.
“The underlying problem with most forms of dementia is the destruction of a key structural component of brain cells known as micro-tubules,” Associate Professor Kieran Scott, Professor of Oncology at Western Sydney University, and co-discoverer of ALPHA-003, said.
“These long, hollow tubes are vital to healthy brain function. In dementia, these microtubules degrade, resulting in the death of brain cells.
“To date, no-one has found a way of preventing microtubular destruction.
“We believe ALPHA-003 has the potential to be that first drug by stabilising the two main brain cell components whose job is to protect microtubules from damage – tau and neurofilaments.”
ALPHA-003 is the result of Australian-designed, deep-learning, computational drug design technology.
The drug is designed to bind to and prevent both tau and neurofilaments from being disrupted by inflammatory forces, giving it an important first-in-class mechanism of action.
According to Filamon the drug is also able to cross the mammalian blood-brain barrier.
ALPHA-003 is being developed to treat a group of diseases known as tauopathies, which include the two major forms of dementia (Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia), progressive supranuclear palsy (a form of Parkinson’s) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE, the result of repeated concussion).
To date, no treatment has emerged as offering any meaningful ability to slow down the rate of deterioration of tauopathy diseases.
ALPHA-003 is advancing through its pre-clinical testing with the aim of being in the clinic in 2026.
