International collaboration between VHIR and UAB for Cerebral Infarction treatment

The Neurovascular Diseases group of Vall d'hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) and the Institut de Neurociències UAB have signed a collaborative agreement with the Japanese company R-Tech Ueno, to develop a novel VAP-1 inhibitor for treatment of cerebral infarction.

RTU-009 is a novel VAP-1 inhibitor, having an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effect.

It is confirmed that RTU-009 has a neuroprotective effect similar to Edaravone, the brain protective agent, and a cerebral dysfunction improving effect when applied in combination with t-PA treatment in animal stroke models. It is currently undergoing non-clinical studies to proceed to Phase I clinical trials.

Though an oral VAP-1 inhibitor named RTU-1096 is under development, RTU-009 is the novel VAP-1 inhibitor that has been developed as an injection agent targeting for treatment of acute cerebral infarction. To explore the possibility of the clinical application of RTU-009 for treating cerebral infarction as a POC (Proof of Concept) trials (Early Phase II clinical trials), we started collaborative research using stroke animal models with the group led by Professor Unzeta of the Institute of Neuroscience, UAB, and the group led by Dr. Montaner, of Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research, the research centre of the UAB-affiliated Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, who are active in the front line of clinicalas well as research activity. Going forward, they will proceed with the development of RTU-009 as acombinationwith t-PA treatment for acute cerebral infarction as the top priority target. These initiatives, including early clinical trials, will be conducted in collaboration with academia.

For the acute stage of cerebral infarction, thrombolytic treatment usingt-PA is the first-line therapy;however,t-PAcan only be used for patients within 4.5 hours from the onset of stroke, considering the risk of brain hemorrhage. Therefore, it is extremely important to develop a new treatment method that reduces the risk of brain hemorrhage and enlarges the range of target patients. According to somereports, the recovery rate, representing the rate of patients who recover to the level of self-reliance, with t-PA treatment is 40-50% in Japan. Further enhancement of the recovery rate and expansion of the 4.5-hour time window for treatment are strongly desired in clinical practice, and we may achieve such goals by utilizing RTU-009 as combinationwith t-PA treatment. In addition, it wasrecently reported that removingthe thrombus intreatable patients within 6 hours of stroke onset via endovascular treatment (mechanical thrombus collection therapy or endovascular thrombectomy) improves treatment results as compared with conventional treatments. Based on this report, we would like to also explore a new treatment utilizing RTU-009, which has an anti-inflammatory effect,in combination with endovascular treatment.