Dynacure Licenses IP for Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia from Paris Brain Institute

Rare Daily Staff

Dynacure said it has entered into a license agreement with the Paris Brain Institute to acquire intellectual property rights related to the development of the company’s second pipeline program, DYN201 for the treatment of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP).

Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias (HSP) are a group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by spasticity and motor dysfunction and affecting approximately five out of every 100,000 people. The only available treatments for these diseases are muscle relaxants, which influence the muscle rigidity or spasticity but do not prevent or delay disease progression. Some forms of HSP are associated with cognitive deficits that are not improved by current treatments.

“This second program demonstrates our ability to identify promising academic research that is establishing pathological drivers of rare diseases that will support further preclinical and clinical research in HSP,” said Frederic Legros, chief operating officer of Dynacure.

The researchers at the Paris Brain Institute identified mutations in the SPG11 gene cause the most prevalent form of autosomal recessive HSP (HSP type 11) in 2008. Mutations in the causal gene SPG11 are associated with thin corpus callosum, cognitive decline and lower motor neuron degeneration.  Dynacure is advancing DYN201, a preclinical program for the treatment of HSP type 11, which strengthens the company’s focus on the development of therapies for rare neurological indications.

Photo: Frederic Legros, chief operating officer of Dynacure