NeuroMedix: Minozac reduces brain inflammation in a mouse model of traumatic brain injury

By Lisa Kerner

Erie, Pa., May 10 - NeuroMedix Inc. said studies show its lead drug candidate for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Minozac, is also effective in reducing brain inflammation in mice suffering traumatic brain injury (TBI) as well as in preventing the cognitive deficit that generally results from such an injury.

Drs. D. Martin Watterson, Linda Van Eldik and Mark Wainwright from the Center for Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology at Northwestern University administered Minozac to mice at three and nine hours following TBI. The timing was designed to closely mimic the clinical situation in which similarly injured patients arrive in hospital trauma centers.

Treatment with Minozac 5 mg/kg suppressed the injury-associated release of neurotoxic cytokines over a 12-hour period both in the hippocampus and the cortex of mice subjected to TBI.

The study also showed that the Minozac dosing prevented the loss of cognitive function over a four-week recovery period, as measured in a Y-maze behavioral test for memory retention and learning.

The company will present results from its studies at the PharmaDiscovery conference in Bethesda, Md.

"These data make Minozac a promising candidate for the treatment of the long-term neurologic complications of TBI," Dr. Wainwright said in the release.

Located in Toronto, NeuroMedix develops therapeutic agents for the treatment of degenerative and inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

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