Myrobalan wins grant for MS remyelination candidate MRO-002
$850K award made through National MS Society's Fast Forward program
Myrobalan Therapeutics has been awarded a grant of more than $850,000 from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to advance its new oral candidate MRO-002 for treating progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS).
The funding was made through the society’s Fast Forward program, which seeks to bridge the gap between preclinical and clinical development for new therapies and diagnostic tools that address disease progression and progressive forms of MS.
Myrobalan‘s experimental therapy MRO-002 is a GPR17 antagonist, or inhibitor, that’s designed to promote myelin repair in people with MS and other demyelinating conditions. With the grant, the company will conduct additional preclinical experiments to determine if it may have therapeutic benefits in progressive MS.
“We are excited to receive the Fast Forward grant from the National MS Society and appreciate their confidence in our drug development approach,” Jing Wang, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Myrobalan, said in a company press release. “We believe that MRO-002 has the potential to promote myelin repair in neurodegenerative diseases, demyelinating disorders, and conditions involving recovery from [central nervous system] injury.”
Finding ways to aid myelin repair
In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin sheath, a fatty coating around nerve cells. Like an insulator on electrical wires, myelin protects nerve fibers and ensures the efficient transmission of nerve signals. When it’s lost, patients experience a range of symptoms related to disrupted nerve signaling.
Myelin is produced by oligodendrocytes, specialized cells in the brain and spinal cord. While existing oligodendrocytes have some ability to repair damaged myelin or restore lost myelin, the remyelination process isn’t very efficient in MS due to ongoing inflammation. There’s also insufficient maturation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) into fully functional oligodendrocytes that are able to produce myelin.
A key challenge in MS treatment is the repair of damaged myelin. While available disease-modifying therapies help reduce relapses and slow disease progression, their ability to repair myelin and reverse disability is limited.
Finding therapies that can improve remyelination has been a longstanding goal in MS research. One promising approach involves targeting GPR17, a receptor in OPCs that prevents the cells from maturing into fully functional oligodendrocytes, thereby limiting myelin repair.
MRO-002 is a highly selective GPR17 antagonist that can cross the blood-brain barrier, the protective membrane that restricts the passage of most substances from the bloodstream into the brain. This ability lets it reach the brain and remove this brake from OPCs, causing them to mature and boosting the production of new myelin.
Preclinical studies on human-derived oligodendrocytes and animal models of demyelination have shown encouraging results. MRO-002 significantly boosted the maturation of oligodendrocytes in both models, resulting in enhanced remyelination in the brains of the animals.
With support from the National MS Society, the company hopes to conduct additional studies to support MRO-002’s development toward clinical trials.
“Having a therapy that promotes myelin repair would have tremendous implications for people living with MS,” said Walter Kostich, PhD, associate vice president of translational research at the National MS Society. “We are happy to support Myrobalan Therapeutics’ preclinical testing of MRO-002 and look forward to learning whether it has translational potential for people with MS.”
About the Author
