New Technology Addresses Brain Trauma Including Alzheimer’s, TBI, and Epilepsy
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Mercaptor Inc, a privately held pharmaceutical company, today announced a breakthrough platform for the CNS. The pivotal technology overcomes challenges that have limited the development of meaningful treatments for the brain. The chemistry improves distribution, proportionates drug activity based on pathology in situ, and limits drug exposure to those areas of the brain suffering pathogenic stress. The unique chemistry behind the approach involves substituting an essential sulfonate group on suitably-configured drugs with an activity-disqualifying thiol, yielding a small molecular therapeutic, termed Capton. Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) is sufficiently understood for the development of a broad class of therapeutics targeting key disease mechanisms. Mercaptor’s CNS CAPTON platform promises to meaningfully impact the treatment of brain disease and damage worldwide.
Patients suffering from neurodegeneration, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease, as well as those subjected to brain trauma, including epilepsy, stroke, and TBI, have had little recourse to therapeutic intervention. These largely unaddressed conditions share complex etiologies and limited pharmacological accessibility. Mercaptor recognizes the need for potent, precisely-regulated, therapeutics in the clinic. A discovery by Mercaptor’s team led to a new class of prodrugs, Captons, which are effectuated by sulfur-redox chemistry catalyzed by physiologically relevant transition metal ions. Such chemistry can be readily detected in the body, but only in areas of the CNS suffering from a variety of insults, including neurodegeneration and trauma.
Studies by Mercaptor’s scientists have demonstrated that these prodrugs, administered orally, become active only in the CNS, specifically in those areas where unchaperoned redox-active metal ions and ROS have reached pathogenic levels. Both species are strongly associated with most neuropathological conditions. Redox chemistry of this variety is a unique feature of the interstitium of the brain, where levels of albumin are a fraction of those found everywhere else in the body.
Building on knowledge gathered by countless researchers over many decades in the fields of sulfur chemistry and oxidative stress biology, Mercaptor’s CAPTON platform provides the means to practice precision neurology with exquisite control over the location and dose of a variety of therapeutics. Our candidate pool consists of well-documented therapeutics acting locally to enhance GABA and taurine activity or to engage P2Y12R, AGTR1, CD40L, SHP2, PIK3CB, VGLUT, ACP1 and the S1P receptors.
“Working with this platform has been the experience of a lifetime for us. It is the sort of technological leap forward that can change how therapies for the CNS are conceived and developed,” said Dr. Todd Zankel, Chief Scientific Officer of Mercaptor. “The recent advent of AI will provide another boost to such efforts. Given the defined SAR behind our approach, we expect that AI will allow a more thorough and efficient exploration of chemical space, accelerating the identification of promising drug candidates and streamlining the development process.”
“We are driven by a commitment to advance the field of neurodegenerative disease and deliver breakthrough therapies,” said Sara Isbell, CEO of Mercaptor. “Our CAPTON platform represents a revolutionary stride in shaping disease-modifying therapies for neurology. From combating brain degeneration to shielding against the perils of cosmic radiation during extended space travel, its applications span an astonishing breadth. The sheer versatility of CAPTON technology, from therapeutics to space exploration, underscores the remarkable and unexpected potential this innovation brings to the forefront.”
Through strategic partnerships with leading research organizations and industry leaders, Mercaptor aims to accelerate the development and commercialization of its groundbreaking CAPTON technology.
About Mercaptor Inc:
Mercaptor is a privately held clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on revolutionizing drug discovery and development for neurodegenerative diseases and trauma.
For media and investor inquiries, please contact:
Sara Isbell
CEO, Co-founder
1 (628) 280-9327
SOURCE Mercaptor Inc
