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AC Immune Awarded Two Grants for Research of Potentially Disease-Modifying Parkinson’s Treatments

By December 28, 2021May 26th, 2022No Comments

AC Immune Awarded Two Grants for Research of Potentially Disease-Modifying Parkinson’s Treatments

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) has awarded two grants to AC Immune, a Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company, to support the development of molecules designed to stop the accumulation of alpha-synuclein and inhibit an inflammatory pathway in Parkinson’s disease.

AC Immune utilizes their proprietary Morphomer™ platform to create small molecules designed to bind to specific misfolded proteins, including alpha-synuclein, and prevent their aggregation and spread to other cells. One of the MJFF grants will help fund AC Immune’s discovery of these molecules, which are able to cross the blood-brain barrier and potentially stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

The second grant will fund research of a small molecule that acts as an inhibitor of the (NOD)-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathway. Chronic inflammation can contribute to the loss of dopaminergic neurons, especially in parts of the brain most affected by Parkinson’s. Inhibiting NLRP3 has been shown to reduce inflammation and protect neurons in various models of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

AC Immune’s portfolio also includes ACI-7104, an anti-alpha-synuclein vaccine that could be used to treat Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and other synucleinopathies.

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CND Life Sciences

CND Life Sciences is the creator of the Syn-One Test™, the world’s first commercially available test to visualize abnormal, phosphorylated alpha-synuclein in cutaneous nerve fibers. The test is an objective, evidence-based diagnostic tool to aid in the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, pure autonomic failure, or REM sleep behavior disorder.