Algorae Pharmaceuticals’ (ASX: 1AI) new AI-168 drug combination that partly involves cannabidiol has shown early potential to improve on existing treatments to protect the heart from cardiovascular stressors.
The company hopes the new combination, identified by using Australia’s only “super-computer” and artificial intelligence, could improve on existing, approved beta-blocker drugs, which have a global market value of US$6.2 billion (A$9.35 billion).
Algorae says the new drug candidate has demonstrated strong cardioprotective qualities and outperformed existing approved front-line beta-blocker drugs in pre-clinical in-vitro studies in types of cell lines.
The company conducted preclinical assessments at the Monash University Victorian Heart Institute Research Laboratories to assess the A1-168 formulation and compare its performance with beta blockers using well-established test tube models of cardiovascular disease.
Algorae then filed an international patent cooperation treaty (PCT) application which will enable it to pursue patent protection for the combination drug in jurisdictions offering potential commercial value, including in the US, Europe, Japan and the European Union.
The application is not a granted patent, however, it will result in the issuance of an international search report and search opinion, which would be vital to provide the company with an indication of the patentability of the AI-drug candidate.
AI-168’s pre-clinical testing involved three cell lines to assess the impact on cell growth caused by cardiac stressors.
In the first model human vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were treated with angiotensin II, which is known to cause a considerable loss in the number of these cells.
Beta-blockers resolved some of the loss, however the AI-168 drug combination restored normal cell proliferation, or an increase in the number of cells, resulting in a 94 per cent improvement from their lowest point.
The second model treated human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells with a platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) which can cause a marked increase in uncontrolled cell growth.
In this case, beta-blockers had a minimal effect on controlling the increase in cells, while AI-168 was able to restore cell proliferation to near-normal levels, culminating in a nearly 80 per cent improvement in reduced cell numbers from its high point.
The third model saw rat cardiovascular cells treated with a type of chemotherapeutic drug known to induce cardiotoxicity to cells.
The treatment caused cell death and significantly reduced cell proliferation.
The cell lines treated with AI-168 showed a 68 per cent restoration in cell numbers lost due to the toxicity of the chemo drug.
Management says it is now studying the in-vitro study results to identify the most appropriate in-vitro models of cardiovascular disease for its next round of testing.
It will then move its testing regime from test-tubes to animal studies of cardiovascular disease being evaluated with the heart research institute.
Algorae last week announced it has identified 24 potential new drug combinations that it will put through to pre-clinical evaluation aimed at improving on existing drug treatments for some types of cancer.
The new combinations were put together by its cutting-edge AlgoraeOS AI system, which is being run off Australia’s “GADI” “super-computer.
Algorae’s AI model has been pumped with a stream of data from existing known drugs that are out of patent. That data was then combined with data on cannabidiol, a product derived from medicinal cannabis, to determine if any combinations could potentially enhance the existing drugs ability to tackle certain diseases.
A phase two evaluation of the new cancer treatment combinations is set to remove cannabidiol as the base ingredient to determine if any two or more drugs in combination can have a greater impact on the diseases than they can in isolation.
The company’s AlgoraeOS AI system is primarily focused on diseases with critical treatment gaps, including breast cancer, lung cancer, leukemia and glioblastoma, a common and aggressive brain cancer.
In other news revealed yesterday, the company said experienced former Johnson & Johnson executive Dr Sarah Siggins has signed on to join the firm.
Siggins, who has a PHD in molecular biology and biochemistry will join the innovative med-tech company’s advisory board to advise on commercial partnerships in the AI-generated drug space.
Dr Siggins has spent 14 years with two giant United States multinational medical firms, Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
She has held senior roles with Janssen Pharmaceutical, a Johnson &Johnson entity largely involved in medical research and development.
Across multiple Janssen roles Dr Siggins has variously been involved in and led teams in the areas of neuroscience, ophthalmology, haematology, cardiopulmonary and others.
Dr Siggins spearheaded pivotal clinical trials and early-access programs across multiple countries and is the publisher of 15 peer-reviewed articles.
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