Soleno Collaborates with Vanderbilt on KATP Channel Activators for the Treatment of Rare Diseases

Rare Daily Staff

Soleno Therapeutics said it will collaborate with Vanderbilt University to discover and develop novel KATP channel activators with the potential to treat rare diseases.

ATP-dependent potassium (KATP) channels are present in several tissues in the body. Activating these channels has been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of various rare diseases, such as hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia. Soleno’s product candidate, DCCR, is a potent activator of KATP channels and has demonstrated significant benefits in a phase 3 study for the treatment of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS).

Vanderbilt faculty members Craig Lindsley and Jerod Denton will lead the collaboration, terms of which have not been disclosed. Lindsley is currently chair in Medicine, professor of Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and director of the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery. Denton is a professor in the departments of Anesthesiology and Pharmacology and the director of Ion Channel Pharmacology at the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery.

“The insight we already have serves as an effective foundation to identify, characterize and develop novel KATP channel activators that may be more potent, specific and/or safer than currently approved therapeutics,” said Lindsley. “Based on the role KATP channels play in controlling and regulating cellular functions, we believe therapeutics targeting this channel could have potential in treating multiple rare diseases.”

The initial aims of the collaboration are to develop robust in vivo and in vitro tools to identify and characterize novel KATP channel activators from recently identified new classes of chemistry. Soleno expects to advance appropriate candidates generated from this collaboration into the clinic in the future.

“We believe that combining their expertise with our experience around the therapeutic potential of KATP channel activators based on our phase 3 program of DCCR in PWS will be an effective and efficient path to new therapeutic products,” said Anish Bhatnagar, CEO of Soleno Therapeutics.

Photo: Craig Lindsley is currently chair in Medicine, professor of Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and director of the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery at Vanderbilt University.