Cantabio Pharmaceuticals Receives Additional Grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Testing Its Novel Redox DJ-1 Protein-based ELISA Platform for the Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease

Grant enables the application of Cantabio’s Redox DJ-1 ELISA platform for the quantification of specific oxidized states of DJ-1 in Parkinson’s disease patients’ bio-samples, such as iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons, post-mortem brain tissue and plasma, for the development of a new biomarker potentially for early diagnosis of and tracking the progression of Parkinson’s disease

SAN MATEO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 17, 2023 / Cantabio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Cantabio” or the “Company”), a preclinical stage pharmaceutical company developing disease modifying therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other aging related diseases, today announced that The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) has awarded the Company a major grant entitled “Quantification of Cys106 of DJ-1 in Distinct Redox States in Parkinson’s Patients’ iPSC-derived Dopaminergic Neurons, Postmortem Brain Tissue and Plasma as a Potential Biomarker of Parkinson’s Disease”. This grant funds the Company’s on-going DJ-1 focused biomarker research program aiming on diagnosing early on-set and tracking the progression of PD.

Currently no available validated tests exist for quantifying clinical biomarkers of PD. Thus, this is an area of critical unmet need both for the early diagnosis and progression of the disease. Moreover, such tests are crucial for the development of disease modifying therapeutics and the early treatment of the disease. Therefore, it represents a large commercial market for an approved solution.

The funded project targets DJ-1, a protein genetically linked to early-onset of familial PD, which acts as a vital defensive protein, protecting cells from damage caused by biochemical stress such as oxidative and glyoxal stress and protein aggregation. Biochemical stress is a causal factor in a number of disease areas, notably neurodegenerative disorders such as PD, as well as AD, Type 2 Diabetes and diseases related to aging. The project will apply Cantabio’s novel Redox DJ-1 ELISA platform to quantify the concentration of DJ-1 in distinct oxidized states of Cys106 through a blood test, and ultimately correlate these with a patient’s risk of developing sporadic PD, and/or to diagnose in the early stages of the disease before motor symptoms can be detected. The Redox DJ-1 ELISA platform was developed by Cantabio with the support of a past grant from MJFF. The ability to detect this pre-symptomatic disease phase is believed to be crucial for R&D efforts to develop therapeutics for preventing or treating PD.

“MJFF greatly values research targeting the biology of Parkinson’s disease and leveraging that insight to develop diagnostic tools. We are proud to fund the work of researchers like the team at Cantabio Pharmaceuticals as they investigate new ways to fulfill the unmet needs of people with Parkinson’s,” said Jessica Tome Garcia, PhD, Associate Director of Research Programs, MJFF.

Cantabio’s CEO & CSO, Dr. Gergely Tóth stated, “We are grateful for continuous funding support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation in our efforts to apply our novel Redox DJ-1 ELISA platform to develop a DJ-1 based biomarker for Parkinson’s, which has the potential to be used for early diagnosis of the disease. A huge unmet need exists for a way to diagnose Parkinson’s disease early and to track disease progression. Cantabio’s Redox DJ-1 ELISA platform is also a critical asset in the development of DJ-1 protein targeting therapeutics as a potential complementary diagnostic, which is also pursued by Cantabio within a range of innovative therapeutic programs.”

About Cantabio Pharmaceuticals

Cantabio is focused on bringing novel, first-in-class drug candidates and diagnostics into clinical trials and beyond through the discovery and development of innovative pharmacological chaperone and protein delivery-based therapeutics aimed at addressing the reduction of biochemical stress such as protein aggregation, oxidative and glyoxal stress, the root causes of various diseases. Cantabio’s programs focus on protein systems implicated in neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as Diabetic Kidney disease. The company is currently engaged in advanced pre-clinical trials of its therapeutics and diagnostics candidates and is focused on developing these towards clinical trials. More information is available at www.cantabio.com.

Contacts:

Company contact:
Gergely Tóth, Ph.D., M.B.A.
CEO & CSO
Cantabio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
info@cantabio.com

SOURCE: Cantabio Pharmaceuticals Inc.

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