University of Southern Denmark

<p><strong>Overview:</strong></p>
<p>The University of Southern Denmark welcomed the first students onto the campus in Odense in September 1966, and things have been developing by leaps and bounds ever since. SDU now have five faculties with more than 32,000 students, almost 20% of whom are from abroad, and more than 4,000 employees distributed across our main campus in Odense and regional campuses in Slagelse, Kolding, Esbjerg and Sønderborg.</p>
<p>SDU conducts world-class research and are one of the top fifty young universities in the world. Every day more than 2,000 researchers and 32,000 students build on the university’s reputation as a centre of academic excellence.</p>
<p><strong>Research:</strong></p>
<p>The University of Southern Denmark consists of five faculties:</p>
<ul>
<li>Faculty of Engineering</li>
<li>Faculty of Health Sciences</li>
<li>Faculty of Science</li>
<li>Faculty of Business and Social Sciences</li>
<li>Faculty of Humanities</li>
</ul>
<p>Every faculty consists of several departments, where the departments have a noticeable academic and economic independence and responsibility. Together departments and centres cover a wide range of research fields and educational opportunities.</p>
<p><strong>Industry Partnerships:</strong></p>
<p>SDU works purposefully to create dialogue between the university’s researchers and the surrounding society. To promote and make communication and knowledge exchange visible, faculties cooperate with various external parties. These activities are organised in centres. The centres serve to promote special purposes in research, education or knowledge exchange.</p>
<p>SDU RIO (SDU Research &amp; Innovation Organisation) supports collaboration between research, education, the business community and the public sector.</p>


<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
<p>Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is caused by many chemotherapeutic drugs, such as taxanes (e.g. paclitaxel), vinca alkaloids (e.g. vincristine), platins, bortezomib, ixabepilone and thalidomide.</p>
<p><strong>Symptoms:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Numbness to touch and vibration</li>
<li>Sensitivity to temperature, touch and pain</li>
<li>Burning pain</li>
<li>Described as “walking on needles”.</li>
</ul>
<p>High frequency for chemotherapeutic drugs, with up to 50% of patients experiencing it for paclitaxel. For some chemotherapeutics, symptoms debut after treatment is concluded and might persist for several years after last chemotherapy dose.</p>
<p>Thus, CIPN impacts drug efficacy and long-term quality of life. With an increasing proportion of patients surviving their cancers, this is of particular concern.</p>
<p>No effective treatment is available. Several substances were shown to be effective in animal models, but this has not translated into clinical efficacy. Novel targets and drugs are warranted for this devastating toxicity.</p>
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
<ul>
<li>The researchers have patent protected a re‑purposed drug that protects neurons in the peripheral nervous system by upregulating their drug transporters that to facilitate extrusion of chemotherapeutics.</li>
<li>The invention is attempting to increase expression of a drug transporter involved in the extrusion of chemotherapy from these cells (neurons), which should help protect neuronal cells from chemotherapy-induced neurotoxicity.</li>
<li>Researchers have shown that inhibiting activity of the efflux transporter P-glycoprotein causes exacerbated neuronal toxicity in cell models and that this extends to humans.<ul>
<li>Additionally, they have shown that increasing expression (inducing) of P-glycoprotein by rifampicin leads to neuroprotection against paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy. They predict that this may extend to other chemotherapeutics such as docetaxel and vincristine as well and that P-glycoprotein induction could be mediated by other inducers such as (but not limited to) carbamazepine and dexamethasone.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The idea is to develop a dermal application of a drug that induces P-glycoprotein. This should lead to increased efflux of chemotherapy in sensory neurons and may protect cancer patients against CIPN.</li>
<li>There are currently no treatments for this (CIPN) debilitating side effect.</li>
<li>The group’s findings are based on state-of-the-art stem cell systems.</li>
<li>This invention is dermally applied inducers of P-glycoprotein to protect the patient’s nerve cells from chemotherapy induced damage. The treatment must be local (e.g. a lotion applied for a few days before chemotherapy), as a systemic delivery would counteract the patient’s chemotherapy. Various topical formulations are currently being tested in the lab.</li>
<li>Compared to other on-going efforts to alleviate CIPN, the drugs proposed here are already approved and marketed globally for other diseases. Thus, regulatory approval for a topical medication comprising one of these drugs should be more straight-forward than for a new drug</li>
<li>This proposal is the first direct mechanism-based treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Current treatments are either cumbersome (i.e. cryotherapy of hands/feet to treat neuropathy) or systemic (i.e. neurologic drugs such as gabapentin) and their efficacy is very limited.</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/figures/gkvoGI7MTrmoBEq7JWNZ_cipn1.PNG" alt="Figure 1: Inhibition of drug transporter (P-gp) leads to a higher degree of CIPN" /><img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/figures/W5JJt4ZYRKzpJQ2O7fww_cipn2.PNG" alt="Figure 2: Induction of P-gp with rifampicin protects neurons from CIPN" /></p>
<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
<ul>
<li>More effective cancer treatment (avoid chemotherapy dose reduction due to CIPN)</li>
<li>Higher quality of life<ul>
<li>For cancer patients receiving chemotherapy (avoid acute CIPN symptoms)</li>
<li>For cancer survivors (avoid chronic CIPN)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Patent protection for use in combination with off-patent or close to off-patent drugs causing CIPN (taxanes, vinca alkaloids, bortezomib)</li>
<li>Candidate drugs Rifampicin have been on the market since 1968 – no topical formulations approved</li>
<li>Topical products pass regulatory processes more easily than internal drug products</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="applications">Applications</h1>
<p>Preventative treatment for all patients receiving platinum-based drugs (e.g., cisplatin, oxaliplatin), taxanes (e.g., paclitaxel, docetaxel), and vinca alkaloids (e.g., vincristine). </p>
<h1 id="opportunity">Opportunity</h1>
<p>Strategic collaborators for GLP preclinical development (2023) and/or investors for clinical development program in 2024. </p>
