Crossing paths

With its first foray into the brain, Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc. is using its linker technology to simultaneously target the inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways that drive neurodegeneration, starting with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Friedreich's ataxia. While the two diseases affect different neurons, have different pathologies and cause different symptoms, the company believes there's enough common ground in the pathway biology to develop a single compound for both, and plans to complete IND-enabling studies by year-end.

The compound, CAT-4001, joins the NF-κB inhibitor docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an anti-inflammatory, with the NRF2 agonist fumarate, which activates antioxidant pathways. (See Figure: Catabasis goes neuro)...