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Galmed Pharmaceuticals Announces Acceleration of its New Clinical Amilo-5MER program
- Phase 1a Clinical Trial to Begin in Q4 2020 TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq: GLMD) ("Galmed" or the
About this update from Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"- Phase 1a Clinical Trial to Begin in Q4 2020\n\n\nTEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq: GLMD) (\"Galmed\" or the \"Company\"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company for liver, metabolic and inflammatory diseases provides today updated information on the Company's pipeline program. \n \n \nGalmed is happy to announce significant progress in the development of Amilo-5MER, a 5 amino acid synthetic peptide MTADV (Methionine, Threonine, Alanine, Aspartic acid, Valine). The 5 amino acids sequence of Amilo-5MER is homologue to a specific MTADV sequence in the human CD44 variant found in synovial fluid cells from joints of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. \nAmilo-5MER is being developed through a research collaboration between Galmed and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The molecule originated in the laboratory of Prof. David Naor, from the Lautenberg Center for Immunology and Cancer Research, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University. Prof. Naor and his team were the first to publish this specific sequence in the prestigious scientific communication Journal of Clinical Investigation 1. \nAmilo-5MER binds to three pro-inflammatory amyloid proteins, Serum Amyloid A (SAA), Transthyretin and Apolipoprotein B with high affinity. The first two are known to be active only in their aggregated forms. By binding to SAA, Amilo-5MER interferes with SAA aggregation and therefor inhibits the destructive autocrine, self-amplifying cytokine loop that causes additional inflammatory reaction. \nWe are presenting today mechanistic and pre-clinical data which supports an IND submission and the initiation of first in human studies expected to begin later this year. \nSAA constitutes acute phase reactants, whose concentration in serum rise rapidly in response to acute stimuli such as infection and trauma. An elevated concentration of SAA was identified in sera of patients with multiple autoimmune diseases and more recently, an outstanding increase of SAA was also detected in COVID-19 infected patients2-3. SAA in its aggregated form, is a potent and rapid inducer of cytokine secretion (particularly Interleukin 6 (IL-6). IL-6 plays an important role in chronic inflammation and is implicated in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Inf...