ROAD TO THE CURE UPDATE APRIL 2014

Category: Road to the Cure

On March 4th, Dr. Anna Cartier, Associate Director of ICB International, Inc., (“ICBI”), in La Jolla, CA, was invited to speak at the Keystone Conference for Parkinson’s disease (PD) held in Keystone, Colorado.

At the symposium, Dr. Cartier announced the first successful live visualization of alpha-synuclein (a-Syn) in the brains of mice with and without Parkinson’s disease using ICBI’s proprietary SMART MoleculeTM technology. ICBI has created an a-Syn-SMART MoleculeTM that enters the blood stream, passes through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and binds specifically to a-Syn.

A-Syn is known to be an important pharmaceutical target for Parkinson’s disease. In fact, during 2013, scientists at the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) published a research report in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease stating that “the ability to image alpha-synuclein deposition in the brain would be a game changing achievement for the Parkinson’s disease field”. ICBI has addressed this challenge.

In the study, a live transgenic (Tg) mouse with Parkinson’s disease and a normal control were injected with 125 Iodine-a-Syn-SMART Molecule™ (125I-a-Syn-SM) in the tail vein. Single photon emission tomography (SPECT) scanning was used to visualize a-Syn with the 125I-a-Syn-SM in these mice. 125I-a-Syn-SM was detected in the brain as early as one hour post injection and continued to accumulate in the brain for at least 9 days. These results strongly support the application of 125I-a-Syn-SMART Molecule™ as a SPECT/PET imaging tool for Parkinson’s disease. These finding are consistent with prior results using multiple Tg mice injected with unlabeled a-Syn-SM.

Delivery of drugs to the Central Nervous System (CNS) has been a problem since the origin of mankind. As a result, there are no diagnostics or therapeutics available for many brain disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. A physical obstacle, the blood-brain barrier, regulates access to the CNS. Small molecule drugs that can reach the CNS may provide short-term symptomatic relief but often do nothing to modify the disease. Large molecule drugs that can potentially modify the disease have very poor access to the CNS. ICBI is determined to change that with its SMART Molecule™ technology.

“These recent discoveries place ICBI among the potential world leaders in efforts to develop diagnostics and therapies for brain disorders”, says founder, Dr. Ram Bhatt. He further states that although the results of this pilot study are very exciting, there is still a considerable amount of work to be done before this technology will be cleared by the US FDA for use in patients for the early diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression or regression during therapy. However, ICBI is optimistic that research collaborations with established neuroimaging facilities will make the transition from laboratory to the patients an easy one.

ABOUT THE COMPANY  ICB International, Inc., (ICBI), is a privately-owned biotechnology research and development company in La Jolla, California, specializing in the development of a proprietary modular platform technology, SMART Molecules, that produces new and innovative biologics designed to diagnose and treat neurodegenerative disorders and cancers of all types. Website: ICBII.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS  This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including ICBIs development of SMART Molecules as PET/SPECT ligands for Parkinsons disease. Each of these statements may involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those, express or implied.

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Updated: August 16, 2017