NEWS! CIHR Grant Metablok TORONTO, July 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arch Biopartners Inc. (“Arch” or the “Company”) (TSX Venture: ARCH and OTCQB: ACHFF), a clinical stage company developing new drug candidates for treating organ damage caused by inflammation, announced today that Arch scientists have been awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Team Grant worth $750,000 to study the potential benefit for the LSALT peptide (Metablok) to prevent inflammation in chronic kidney and lung diseases.
The CIHR grant entitled “Therapeutic Targeting a Shared Inflammation Pathway in the Lungs and Kidneys” was awarded to a research team at the University of Calgary led by Arch scientists Dr. Donna Senger and Dr. Daniel Muruve. The new grant will help further the understanding of the novel mechanism of action for organ inflammation first described in the journal Cell by Dr. Senger and her team in 2019. The grant was one of five awarded in the CIHR Team Grant competition “Preparation to Trial in Inflammation for Chronic Conditions”.
To date, the LSALT team has worked to establish dipeptidase-1 (DPEP-1) as an adhesion receptor for neutrophils (white blood cells) in the lungs, liver and kidneys. This neutrophil recruitment often causes acute inflammation and organ injury in patients during critical illness including acute kidney injury (AKI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
The grant will be used to conduct pre-clinical studies to assess the potential of LSALT peptide as a treatment to prevent chronic kidney or lung disease, which are common long-term consequences in people who experience AKI or ARDS.
The grant will also be used to determine the optimal design of clinical trials targeting DPEP-1 to prevent chronic disease in critically ill patients. Finally, a portion of the funds will support ongoing pre-clinical studies to advance next generation drug candidates held within the Arch portfolio that target the DPEP-1 pathway.
About DPEP-1 and Organ Inflammation
A scientific team led by Arch scientists Dr. Donna Senger and Dr. Stephen Robbins first described a novel mechanism of action for organ inflammation in the journal Cell in August 2019. In the publication, the enzyme DPEP-1 was identified for the first time as a major neutrophil adhesion receptor on the lung, liver and kidney endothelium. Their findings identified DPEP-1 as a novel therapeutic target for diseases of these organs where inflammation plays a major role.
LSALT peptide (also known as Metablok) is a novel therapeutic agent and the lead DPEP-1 inhibitor in the Arch peptide drug pipeline. Arch also has patent protection to re-purpose the small molecule cilastatin, a known DPEP-1 inhibitor, for the prevention of acute kidney injury caused by inflammation in several different indications.
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