Inflammasome Therapeutics Announces First Patient Dosed in Geographic Atrophy Clinical Trial
Inflammasome Therapeutics announced the first patient has been dosed in a first-in-class clinical trial for a sustained release implant for geographic atrophy (GA) due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The phase 1 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT06164587) is sponsored by the University of Kentucky and expected to enroll up to five patients with GA.
Trial participants will receive a tiny, sustained release implant designed to provide slow, consistent release of the drug K8 directly into the back of the eye. K8 was specifically designed for retinal delivery and the implants and injector system were crafted to deliver this particular drug. This combined drug and delivery strategy allows high therapeutic doses to be maintained in the eye while the drug is undetectable in systemic circulation, according to Inflammasome.
“This marks the second trial underway with our Kamuvudines in ophthalmology,” said Paul Ashton, PhD, President and CEO of Inflammasome Therapeutics, developers of both the compounds and delivery systems for administration. “Our Kamuvudines have been shown in preclinical studies to block inflammasome activation caused by multiple toxic pathways–complement, amyloid beta, iron overload, retrotransposons, etc. If we can block inflammasome activation in the clinic, we believe we can have a profound effect on the disease by blocking multiple pathways.”
Inflammasome Therapeutics’ co-founder, Jayakrishna Ambati, MD, has spent more than a decade developing Kamuvudines and identifying their role in the inhibition of inflammasome activity that is being found to be the underlying cause of many diseases. In publications in Science and Nature, he has described the basic research on GA and preclinical development of Kamuvudines:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1261754
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09830