Woburn, Mass. – March 26, 2019 − Aphios Corporation today announced that it has been granted European Patent No. 2 925 315 B1 entitled “Bryoid Compositions, Methods of Making and Use Thereof,” for the composition of matter of a novel Bryostatin, method of manufacturing and for use in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Down’s syndrome, Hutchinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis; virus latency diseases such as HIV and Herpes; cancers such as prostate and leukemia; and amyloid mediated diseases such as glaucoma.
Bryoids consist of a family of Bryostatins, such as Bryostatin-1, that are complex cyclic macrolide molecules. Bryoids were originally isolated from the marine bryozoan, Bulgula neritina, in small quantities. Methods of synthesis are awkward and costly. Twenty-one Bryoid compositions, known as Bryostatins and numbered 1-21, have been identified. Many of the Bryoids are known to possess anticancer properties.
Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Down’s syndrome, Hutchinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis, Kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and other spongiform encephalopathies remain major health problems. Currently there are very limited means to treat these diseases. With respect to Alzheimer’s, Hutchinson’s and Parkinson’s diseases, these disorders tend to manifest themselves in older individuals and as the diseases progress, the afflicted individuals are less able to care for themselves. The neurogenerative diseases are associated with the formation of beta amyloid plaques. Bryoids stimulate the production of certain isoforms of protein kinase C (PKC) that increase the production of alpha-secretase which makes soluble amyloid precursor protein, thus inhibiting the formation of beta amyloid plaques. With respect to cancers such as prostate cancer, Bryoids inhibit phorbol ester-induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells by differentially modulating protein kinase C (PKC) delta translocation and preventing PKC-delta-mediated release of tumor necrosis factor-alpha. With respect to latent virus diseases such as HIV-1 latency, Bryoids, as well as many PKC agonists, activate cellular transcription factors such as NF-kB that binds the HIV-1 promoter and regulates its transcriptional activity. In HIV-1 latency the viral promoter is less accessible to cellular transcription factors because nuclear histones surrounding the viral promoter are deacetylated (compacted chromatin). Thus, HDAC inhibitors may increase the acetylation of histones (relaxed chromatin) allowing transcription factors easier access to the HIV promoter.
According to Dr. Trevor P. Castor, President and CEO, Aphios Corporation, and inventor of this patent: “This novel Bryoid, Bryostatin-22, is a highly potent nanomolar activator of a-secretase activity in neuroblastoma cell models, being more effective than Bryostatin-1 as well as more effective at increasing activity of all PKC isoforms, particularly the novel PKC isoforms, delta and epsilon. Aphios plans to develop this compound for Alzheimer’s and other diseases and is seeking collaborative research and licensing partners.”
About Aphios Corporation: Aphios Corporation (www.aphios.com) is a clinical stage, green biotechnology company developing enabling technology platforms for improving drug discovery, manufacturing, delivery and safety, and enhanced natural therapeutics for health maintenance and disease prevention, and the treatment of cancers and supportive care, infectious diseases such as HIV, and CNS disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and opioid addiction.
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