German company looking at Nitrous Oxide for TBI treatment
A company in Germany is in the process of creating a new drug aimed at treating patients who suffer traumatic brain injury( TBI).
Read More: Wisconsin Brain Injury Lawyer
According to Labiotech.eu, a website focused on biotech news, Vasopharm’s Nitrous Oxide Synthase inhibitor is starting Phase III.
Vasopharm is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of cerebro- and cardiovascular diseases and their consequences – indications with significant unmet clinical need. The company is focused on the development of therapeutics that steer the availability of biological nitric oxide (NO) over the entire NO signal cascade and its functional counterpart the NAD(P)H oxidase (NOX) family.
The company focuses on drug development in acute niche indications with an unmet medical need that enables it to rapidly demonstrate clinical efficacy. In addition to developing its own products to demonstrate clinical efficacy, Vasopharm is actively seeking complementary opportunities in the area of acute cardiovascular or CNS diseases preferably in late pre-clinical or early clinical state of development.
“The company has found NOS to be an effective target for treatments of traumatic brain injury( TBI); so successful that it has just enrolled its first patient in a Phase III clinical trial for Ronopterin,” the article reads. “Ronopterin inhibits NOS as an analogue of the natural co-factor, biopterin. It is thought to selectively down-regulate inducible NOS (iNOS) and stem the cascade of damaging sequellae set in motion by TBI. This cascade leads to 70,000 deaths and 100,000 disabilities annually, making TBI the leading cause of death and disability in young adults.”
Nitric oxide synthases are a family of enzymes catalyzing the production of nitric oxide (NO) from L-arginine. NO is an important cellular signaling molecule. It helps modulate vascular tone, insulin secretion, airway tone, and peristalsis, and is involved in angiogenesis and neural development. It may function as a retrograde neurotransmitter.
