AC Immune Wins Prestigious Award to Develop a “Game-Changing” Parkinson’s Diagnostic Tool - Seite 2

Jamie Eberling, Ph.D, Vice President of Research at MJFF, said: “The Foundation is committed to the development of an imaging tracer for Parkinson’s. AC Immune has already advanced alpha-synuclein tracers to human clinical testing, and we look forward to its progress as it continues clinical testing and develops new tracers.”

The MJFF award for AC Immune’s alpha-synuclein-PET program follows the announcement at this year’s AAT-AD/PD conference that the Company’s SupraAntigen-derived anti-alpha-synuclein therapeutic antibody candidate has advanced into preclinical development to treat PD and other synucleinopathies. The combined potential of AC Immune’s therapeutic and diagnostic programs is based on the Company’s capabilities in precision medicine and may improve the diagnosis and treatment of alpha-synuclein pathologies, which are also of increasing interest in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and NeuroOrphan indications.

Prof. Oskar Hansson, of Lund University and Skåne University Hospital said: “It would be a huge step forward if we succeed in the development of an accurate and reliable PET method for detection of alpha-synuclein pathology. Such a diagnostic method would be vital for increasing our understanding of the diseases, and more importantly it would facilitate the development of new disease modifying therapies that might halt, or even stop, the progression of PD.”

Prof. Pfeifer continued: “Our second generation alpha-synuclein-PET tracer started a first-in-human study last year and plans are in place to start another study to evaluate this tracer in genetic populations and, in parallel, advance a third generation candidate to clinical stage. With this latest award from MJFF, we look forward to advancing this important diagnostic program in collaboration with Prof. Hansson at Lund University and Skåne University Hospital.”

About AC Immune’s alpha-synuclein programs
Alpha-synuclein misfolding, aggregation and seeding are the molecular basis for the formation of Lewy bodies, a hallmark of PD, multiple system atrophy, and Lewy Body Dementia. Antibody-mediated clearance of pathological alpha-synuclein, including Lewy bodies, represents an attractive strategy for therapeutic intervention. Availability of non-invasive diagnostic tools like PET imaging agents would allow accurate diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression and would potentially enable longitudinal drug efficacy measurements in patients.