Shake It Up Australia Foundation together with our partners at The Michael J. Fox Foundation are excited to be co-funding this exciting project to test the effectiveness of a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease (PD), called RRx-001. This drug could be beneficial in PD by blocking inflammasome activation and other mechanisms which drives persistent inflammation that is linked to PD progression.
Read the full press release below:
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, July 12, 2022 – University of Queensland researchers will partner with American biopharmaceutical company EpicentRx Inc. to evaluate new treatments for Parkinson’s disease (PD), speeding up development of potential new therapies.
UQ and EpicentRx Inc. will evaluate the effectiveness of RRx-001, the lead compound in a pipeline of small molecules developed by the biopharmaceutical company for investigational treatments, to slow down or halt progression of Parkinson’s disease.
UQ lead and Centre for Clinical Research investigator Dr Richard Gordon said this partnership has been made possible through funding provided by The Michael J, Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and the Shake It Up Australia Foundation (SIUAF), a not-for-profit organization which promotes and funds Australian research to slow, stop and cure Parkinson’s.
“Initial work on RRx-001 indicates that the compound could provide protection against PD by targeting multiple processes linked to disease progression in the brain, vascular and immune systems,” he said.
“This study will run for two years and is expected to generate key data to support clinical trials with RRx-001 in PD patients.”
“We are excited to be working with EpicentRx and are grateful for the funding and resources provided by MJFF and SIUAF to evaluate RRx-001,” Dr Gordon said.
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurological disease in Australia affecting around 200,000 people nationally, according to the Shake It Up Australia Foundation.
The number of Australians with PD has increased by 17 percent in the past six years with 20 percent of patients aged under 50 years and 10 percent diagnosed by the age of 40.
Founder and CEO of Shake It Up Australia, Mr Clyde Campbell welcomed the UQ– EpicentRx partnership and highlighted the potential for new treatments for people living with PD.
“RRx-001 has been evaluated in human trials for other conditions, which means it can be accelerated as a new treatment for PD, if outcomes from this research are successful,” Clyde Campbell said.
Media: Dr Richard Gordon r.gordon1@uq.edu.au, (07) 3346 6081; Shake It UP Australia Foundation, vicki@shakeitup.org.au, 0413 417 486; UQ Communications med.media@uq.edu.au, (07) 3365 5118 or 0436 368 746.
About Dr Gordon
Dr Gordon is an Advance Queensland Mid-Career Fellow and Group Leader in Clinical Neuroscience at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR). He received his PhD in Immunology and Toxicology in 2012. His research career has focused on the crucial role of the innate immune system in driving pathological inflammation that is closely linked to progression of Parkinson’s disease. Dr Gordon’s research has contributed to several important advances in his field which have been published in prestigious scientific journals including Nature Communications and Science Translational Medicine. Dr Gordon is also a Certified Toxicologist (ABT) and a member of the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee (GTTAC) that provides scientific and technical advice to the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) and the Legislative and Governance Forum on Gene Technology.
About EpicentRx Inc.
EpicentRx is a leading-edge biopharmaceutical company with a complementary pipeline of small molecules and cancer targeting virus platforms that represent the next frontier in treating patients with diseases of significant unmet need. With two platforms, CyNRGY andAdAPT, EpicentRx has developed therapies and novel drug delivery devices that fine tune the inflammatory response, turning it ON in cancer and turning it OFF in diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and congestive heart failure, with emphasis on not just treating the disease but improving quality of life. For more information, visit www.epicentrx.com.
