MJFF awards $6m to Lario Therapeutics for Parkinson’s research

The neurological disease is estimated to affect more than ten million people globally

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) has awarded $6m to Lario Therapeutics to fund its preclinical programme for Parkinson’s disease (PD) research.

The company will collaborate with professor Richard Wade-Martins and the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre to evaluate its compounds in state-of-the-art patient-derived stem cell models for PD.

Estimated to affect more than ten million people worldwide, PD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that causes tremors, slowness, stiffness, walking and balance problems, as well as depression and memory problems.

As part of the programme, researchers will investigate selective CaV2.3 calcium channel inhibition as a novel and disease-modifying approach to treat the neurological condition.

CaV2.3 are voltage gated calcium channels that are localised primarily on the nerve terminals, a specialised region of a neuron that releases neurotransmitters, and dendrites, structures on the neuron that receive electrical messages, as well as neuroendocrine cells, which produce hormones and release them into the bloodstream.

Previous preclinical experimental studies have shown that calcium channels can link to the pathology of PD, as the deletion of CaV2.3 can have a protective effect against the progression of the neurological disease.

If successful, a potential new therapy could be developed to prevent the loss of neurons that cause PD and “will represent an important new treatment option for patients,” said Tom Otis, chief scientific officer, Lario Therapeutics.

Lario Therapeutics co-founder and chief executive officer, Henning Steinhagen, commented: “This grant will help drive our ambition to progress our Cav2.3 programme swiftly towards the clinic, to provide a new, effective treatment option for people with PD.”

Gaia Skibinski, director of research programmes at MJFF, said: “We look forward to seeing the results of Lario’s research on CaV2.3 as a novel disease-modifying approach for Parkinson’s.”

Earlier this year, in July, MJFF, along with Parkinson’s UK’s Virtual Biotech programme, awarded $5.2m to Mission Therapeutics to advance a potential treatment for early-stage PD and support the company’s ongoing phase 1 programme evaluating its small drug molecule MTX325 in patients living with the neurodegenerative condition.