BioWorld International Correspondent
LONDON - Senexis Ltd. raised £1.4 million (US$2.24 million) in its first round to develop inhibitors of amyloidosis, a pathogenic process in a range of aging-related diseases including Type II diabetes and Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neuron diseases.
The money came from BTG plc, of London, and Catalyst BioMedica Ltd., of London, the venture capital arm of the research charity the Wellcome Trust.
CEO Mark Treherne told BioWorld International, "We expect the funding to last two years, allowing us to take some of our novel inhibitors through preclinical testing."
Senexis was founded by Kelvin Stott, chief scientific officer, and Andrew Doig, a researcher in the department of biomolecular sciences at the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology. Together they discovered a class of inhibitors that can block, and reverse, amyloidosis, in which proteins clump together to form insoluble plaques. That process is believed to be fundamental to the pathology of at least 20 incurable aging-related diseases.
Amyloid is made up of ribbon-like peptides called beta-amyloid that are sticky on both sides and hence clump together. The Senexis inhibitors lock onto one side of the ribbon, leaving only one side sticky, and so are able to cling only to one other beta-amyloid peptide.
"We are at the point where we have a number of inhibitors, which we are testing and evaluating," said Treherne. Although the initial focus is Alzheimer's disease, the technology has broad applicability, which Treherne said would allow the company to generate a pipeline of products. "This is such a fundamental process to the pathology of a range of diseases, which inhibiting may slow or reverse the disease process. As far as we are aware, no one else is working on this mechanism."
Treherne formerly was CEO of the drug discovery services company Cambridge Drug Discovery plc, and worked in neurosciences at Pfizer Inc.'s UK research laboratory.
Senexis will be based initially at Doig's laboratory.