GeNeuro and Northwestern University Enter Into a Research Collaboration on HERV-W ENV in Long-haul COVID

Regulatory News:

GeNeuro (Euronext Paris: CH0308403085 - GNRO), a biopharmaceutical company developing new treatments for neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, announces today that it has entered into a research agreement with Northwestern University to further investigate the relationship between HERV-W ENV (W-ENV) and long-COVID neuropsychiatric syndromes.

Northwestern University is a pioneer in the comprehensive treatment of long-haul COVID-19 symptomatology, having established a Neuro COVID-19 Clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital as early as May 2020. This clinic, initiated and led by Prof. Igor Koralnik, MD, chief of Neuroinfectious Diseases and Global Neurology at Northwestern Medicine, has provided personalized treatments to over 800 patients to date who experience neurological complications from COVID-19.

The purpose of the research agreement is to establish evidence of W-ENV expression on the transcriptional and protein level, to ascertain whether this protein can be a blood biomarker of neurological complications of long-haul COVID. The pathogenic properties of W-ENV on neural system cells are well established, and its continued presence may provide a biological rationale and a therapeutic lever to treat affected patients. The identification of the characteristics of the patients which would be most likely to benefit from a treatment with temelimab, an anti-W-ENV antibody, is a critical success factor in this new indication.

“At Northwestern we are committed to finding treatments for the patients suffering from long-haul COVID‑19, and this research agreement will test an interesting hypothesis,” said Prof. Igor Koralnik, MD, chief of Neuroinfectious Diseases and Global Neurology at Northwestern Medicine. “We will determine whether the continued and self-sustained expression of W-ENV after the acute phase of the disease could be associated to some of the neurologic and psychiatric symptoms experienced by long-haul COVID patients.”

“We are delighted to work with Prof. Koralnik and the Neuro COVID-19 Clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital to validate the contribution of W-ENV on the neuropsychiatric syndromes developed by long-haul COVID patients,” said Prof. David Leppert, Chief Medical Officer of GeNeuro. “Their leadership in the long-haul COVID field will accelerate our understanding of this complex disease to identify patients who are most likely to benefit from a treatment with temelimab.”