Replies to post #224253 on Biotech Values

[rfj1862]

I think there's a whole generation of researchers and scientists who've been convinced that Amyloid Beta is the root cause of AD.

Holding onto that belief is, in my opinion, inane.

While viral is the leading suspect, that doesn't make it the only cause. And it could turn out to be another wild goose chase. I doubt it, but I can't absolutely rule it out.

And if I were to become aware of early AD symptoms in myself, I would do everything in my power to find a doctor willing to give me successive courses of antivirals, antifungals, and antibacterials.

I don't think that viruses or a previously unknown prion are out of the question at all as causative agents in AD! Bacteria and fungi probably far less likely. I don't think that a lack of efficacy of IVIG in AD says anything because, of course, IVIG can't get past the blood-brain barrier.

As far as beta-amyloid production being the root cause of AD--I don't think that is out of the question either. There are other protein misfolding diseases that cause neurologic (and cardiac) symptoms--for example, transthyretin amyloidosis, which can have rapid and severe effects on the peripheral nervous system. The type that affects the peripheral nervous system is primarily hereditary, but the cardiac type (which also has neurologic effects) is mostly caused by misfolding of wild-type protein, although there are also some hereditary cases.

So since this is the biotech values board are there any worthwhile AD investments out there?

[jbog]

Where Alzheimer’s Research Is Pushing Ahead

Disappointing results for drugs targeting Beta amyloid buildup in the brain has renewed focus on drugs that act in other ways

By Joseph Walker and Peter Loftus
March 24, 2019 11:00 a.m. ET

The failure last week of Biogen Inc. BIIB -4.48% and Eisai Co.’s ESALY 6.19% once-promising Alzheimer’s disease drug was the latest in a spate of disappointments for medicines designed to target Beta amyloid, a sticky substance long known to accumulate in the brains of people with the disease.

The repeated failure of such drugs are giving greater currency to efforts by academics and smaller biotech companies to better understand the biology of Alzheimer’s and explore the use of drugs with alternative mechanisms of action. Some of the more promising research efforts are looking into the role that inflammation, the immune system, viruses and another brain substance called tau might play in the disease, disease experts say.

Some say that the risk factors associated with the disease are so complex that focusing on just one won’t be productive.

“The idea of finding that one drug that will hit that one receptor and cure Alzheimer’s disease is fool’s gold,” says Lon Schneider, an Alzheimer’s researcher and professor at the University of Southern California. “We’re unlikely to get anywhere unless we understand and are able to grapple with the heterogeneity of the disease.”

While some big drugmakers such as Pfizer Inc. have exited Alzheimer’s research, most are still developing experimental drugs for the disease, using various approaches. Novartis AG , Roche Holding AG and Lilly are among those companies with more than one Alzheimer’s drug in the pipeline.

And by no means is industry or academia giving up on amyloid-clearing drugs. Genetic and brain-imaging data show that the plaques play some role in the disease and are too strong to abandon, they say.

The day after Biogen and Eisai disclosed the failure of one anti-amyloid drug, called aducanumab, they announced the start of a late-stage trial of another compound also aimed at clearing the plaques.

Novartis and Amgen Inc. are partnering on a late-stage study of an anti-amyloid drug. A Novartis spokesman said aducanumab’s failure had no impact on its development plans. The Novartis drug uses a different mechanism of action to prevent amyloid deposits and is being studied in patients about 10 years younger than those in the Biogen-Eisai trial, the Novartis spokesman said.

But each setback for an anti-amyloid drug gives greater weight to other approaches, such as drugs that target tau in the brain.


Smaller companies taking various approaches include Denali Therapeutics Inc., a startup that’s developing drugs that target inflammation and other aspects of the brain to treat Alzheimer’s.

Alector Inc., in South San Francisco, Calif., is developing drugs to restore functioning of the brain’s immune system. In addition to sticky plaques like amyloid, Alzheimer’s patients also have fewer connections between neurons, and damage to a substance called myelin that sheaths and protects them, said Alector Chief Executive Arnon Rosenthal.

Alector thinks genetic mutations linked to the brain’s immune system are driving the degeneration. The company’s drugs aim to correct the genes’ functioning and kick-start the immune response into slowing or reversing the damage, Dr. Rosenthal says.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Tarrytown, N.Y., says its largest basic research program is in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. The company has been researching the diseases since the late 1980s without success. Now, it is just beginning again to conceive new drugs, with a focus on the idea that infectious-like proteins called prions may play a big role in the disease.

“Any breakthrough requires deep understanding of pathways and targets,” says Regeneron Chief Scientific Officer George Yancopoulos. “In neurodegenerative disease, we’re only just beginning to get to that point to understand what the targets are for intervention.”


Some researchers suspect that microbes may cause or contribute to Alzheimer’s. Leslie Norins, a former infectious-disease researcher, and his wife are offering a $1 million prize to anyone who can generate persuasive evidence that an infectious agent causes most Alzheimer’s cases. Given the setbacks of late, the possibility that a virus or bacteria causes Alzheimer’s “seemed to deserve investigation,” Dr. Norins said.

The U.S. National Institute on Aging is planning to invite applications for research grants that explore whether infectious agents play a role in Alzheimer’s, NIA Director Dr. Richard Hodes said.

The National Institutes of Health, which oversees the NIA, is planning to fund about $2.3 billion in total Alzheimer’s research this year, up from about $1.9 billion in 2018. That includes about 140 ongoing clinical trials, including 35 testing various drugs, Dr. Hodes said.

About 13 of those drug trials are for anti-amyloid drugs. The rest take approaches such as targeting inflammation or enhancing the effects of neurotransmitters in the brain, Dr. Hodes said.

“Each time there’s a negative result, we have to very seriously and critically go back and re-examine our assumptions,” he said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-alzheimers-research-is-pushing-ahead-11553439600?mod=hp_lead_pos5

Write to Joseph Walker at [e-mail]

[DewDiligence]

CRTX +93% on first day of trading—IPO of 5.07M* shares @$17.00 was announced Wednesday evening:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cortexyme-inc-announces-pricing-initial-232200313.html

Cortexyme is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company pioneering a novel disease-modifying therapeutic approach to treat a key underlying cause of Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative diseases. Cortexyme is targeting a specific, infectious pathogen found in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients and tied to neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation in animal models. The company’s lead investigational medicine, COR388, is the subject of the GAIN Trial, an ongoing Phase 2/3 clinical study in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s.

*Assuming exercise of underwriter’s option.