Company will leverage IP for therapeutic and prophylatic development.
Neurologix gained rights to Aegera Therapeutics’ x-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) gene for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes in the treatment of Huntington’s disease. The exclusive agreement gives Neurologix worldwide rights excluding China. XIAP is an inhibitor of caspases, a family of proteins that are executors of apoptosis.
“We have been very encouraged by our preclinical results to date, which demonstrate that XIAP may not only modify the progression of cell death but may potentially reverse neuronal dysfunction as well,” John Mordock, president and CEO of Neurologix says.
In preclinical studies, Neurologix scientists showed that a mutated form of the XIAP delivered by an adeno-associated virus vector slows the disease and normalizes motor deficits associated with the disease when introduced into the brain of mice harboring the same mutation found in humans.
