PharmaCure, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing precision medicine for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, today announces a new epigenetics collaboration with Sheffield Hallam University. This collaboration will focus on “gene-based environmental biomarkers,” known as epigenetic markers, to calculate risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease. Together with ALZmetrixTMPharmaKure’s blood-based biomarker, this will increase the power of current Alzheimer’s diagnostics.
The collaborative study between Sheffield Hallam University and Pharmakure aims to better understand Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in order to identify those most at risk of developing the disease, thereby enabling appropriate interventions to be provided much earlier in the disease’s pathology.
“We are working on the relationship of environmental stress to brain diseases.” Professor Reynolds has published over 300 papers on the pathology of neurotransmitter systems involved in psychiatric disorders and is now focusing on epigenetic influences on neurodiseases. ”
Professor Gavin Reynolds, Biomolecular Sciences Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University
Gavin adds, “Our genes are encoded in our DNA, but epigenetics looks at how the cell turns genes on and off according to different environmental exposures, such as the aging process, stress, trauma, etc. We want to identify abnormal epigenetic changes associated with brain diseases, and these changes can be modified with drugs.”
“Mental health and environment can both contribute to the development of brain diseases. Effects such as trauma and chronic stress can induce epigenetic changes in DNA that can lead to a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders. So we’re looking for epigenetic factors specifically related to Alzheimer’s disease.”
Dr Helene Fachim, Neuroscientist, PharmaKure
Helen adds, “We would like to use these epigenetic approaches to better understand AD so that we can stratify a person’s risk of developing it. We could then act in preventative ways or administer AD drugs earlier in life when they are most effective.”
AD is a multifactorial disease and it is known that environmental factors can contribute significantly to its triggering. The main hypothesis of the study is that there is differential methylation in some target genes associated with AD compared to non-AD controls. If this hypothesis proves true, Pharmakure can begin to validate an epigenetic predictive risk score for cognitive impairment and AD.
“We are very positive and excited about this new epigenetic collaboration and believe that bringing academia and industry together is the best way to achieve our goals. We look forward to sharing important results in the near future.”
Dr. Farid Khan, CEO, PharmaKure.
