Nov 6, 2023
Mark Litton, President and CEO of Athira Pharma, discusses advancements in treating neurodegenerative diseases, highlighting the challenges in treating these diseases. Athira's approach uses the body's natural repair mechanism to enhance the repair and protection of nerve cells. Their lead molecule, fosgonimeton, enhances the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and crosses the blood-brain barrier to effectively target neurodegeneration.
Mark explains, "At Athira, we're taking a completely novel approach where we're using the body's natural repair mechanism to help repair. We have spent many years designing molecules that enhance this mechanism. This is what we call the HGF/MET biology. This is a biology that has been known for over 30 years. It was originally discovered coming from the liver. What we know about it is that it's important in repairing, protecting, healing, and developing nerve cells."
"What we found in a lot of neurodegenerative diseases is that this repair mechanism is impaired, or it slows down as we get older. One of the keys is you've got a molecule, and it's HGF, and then it binds its receptor, the MET receptor. When it binds that receptor, that's when the cell gets activated and starts repairing. There are numerous factors that happen along the way. There are two places one could enhance the receptor. We've decided to enhance the HGF, the protein itself, to help it bind to its receptor."
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