Of Mice And Me

As many of my readers know, about two years ago I came across a study investigating a novel molecule for the treatment of Alzheimer's. The molecule, J147, is a synthetic derivative of curcumin. Curcumin and other similar molecules have long been under study for neurodegenerative diseases. Unfortunately curcuminoids have rather poor bioavailability, meaning they are quickly excreted from the body and require high amounts to have a therapeutic value. Like curcumin, J147 is "orally available" (meaning it is introduced to the body by eating it) but is more than 100X as potent. This means a much smaller quantity is necessary for therapeutic effect. So far, we haven't found a toxic dose of J147. Work on toxicity is ongoing.

In the Alzheimer's study J147 had remarkable results in that model. The pathways acted upon were quite relevant to ALS. These include potent antioxidant effects, significant reduction of microglia activation and migration, and reduction of heat-shock protein expression which indicates a shift back toward cellular homeostasis. More recent data (unpublished) indicates an effect in reducing astrocyte activation, which is sufficient to rapidly kill even healthy motor neurons.

Unfortunately, because J147 is pleiotropic, pharmaceutical companies weren't interested. The current research paradigm is to focus on single molecular targets. For diseases with a single mechanisms, that's a fine method of attack. But ALS has quite a few things going on simultaneously. All prior single-target treatments have failed and the current growing opinion is that successful treatment would require a cocktail of drugs. Better to have a single pleiotropic substance than a mixture of chemicals with uncertain interactions.

In April, 2013, I created SciOpen Research Group in order to have an entity capable of negotiating research and licensing of novel molecules with the promise of treatment of ALS. J147 is our first project. In the early summer of 2013, SRG applied to Prize4Life for access to their colony of G93A transgenic research mice at Jackson Laboratories. Our research proposal for J147 was accepted and we were given granted sufficient animal numbers to properly conduct our study. We received the mice and started the experiment at the end of January.

We are very excited to have commenced our first research program and demonstrate that guerrilla biotechs can perform quality science. To that end, we created a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to obtain funding for the next step of the experiment - microscopic tissue examination. This will tell us exactly what J147 did to help the motor neurons in the mice.

Please donate if you can. All donations are tax-deductible. If you cannot donate please spread word about SRG and our need for funding this new and exciting research.