Sarcopenia

Sarcopenia is defined as loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength that occurs with advancing age. It is a pathological geriatric syndrome, which differs from muscle loss in normal aging. Current diagnosis of sarcopenia is cumbersome (e.g. DXA scan). Moreover, there is no effective medical treatment for the condition. Depending on the literature definition used for sarcopenia, the prevalence in 60–70-year-olds is reported as 5–13%, while the prevalence ranges from 11 to 50% in people >80 years. Even with a conservative estimate of prevalence, sarcopenia affects >50 million people today and will affect >200 million in the next 40 years. (Cruz-Jentoft et al., 2010)

Neurotune has several lines of evidence that the neurotrypsin-agrin system is involved in sarcopenia, based on a mouse model and analysis of blood samples of sarcopenia patients. More

Neurotrypsin is a molecule that regulates the strength of communication among nerve cells as well as from nerve to muscle cells. Nerves and muscles communicate at contact sites with a specific structure, called synapse or neuromuscular junction. Neurotrypsin is located at the neuromuscular junction and, through its enzymatic activity, cleaves and inactivates another protein of the neuromuscular junction, named agrin. Agrin is the major synapse-building factor. By cleaving and inactivating agrin, neurotrypsin acts as a synapse-eliminating factor.

 

Neurotune has developed a unique platform for the diagnosis and treatment of sarcopenia.

• Neurotune’s diagnostic test allows the selection of patients with a dysbalance in the agrin – neurotrypsin system. More
• A proprietary animal model (named SARCO mouse) shows pathological and phenotypic changes similar to sarcopenia patients.
• Neurotune pursues a dual strategy for therapeutics to influence the balance of agrin - neurotrypsin. More
• Strong IP covering neurotrypsin as a target, small molecules and agrin biological for treatment as well as a diagnostic assay for sarcopenia.