Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is the AIDS-defining ill
Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Health and Human Services.
- Amount
- $225,000
- Agency
- Department of Health and Human Services · National Institutes of Health
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Solicitation
- PA13-234
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- CA
- Period
- —
Description
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is the AIDS-defining illness for 60-70% of HIV positive individuals with an estimated worldwide occurrence of 1 million cases annually. CM is invariably fatal if left untreated, In sub-Saharan Africa alone, CM causes over 500,000 annual deaths among HIV positive patients compared with 350,000 annual deaths for tuberculosis in the general population. A particular challenge with the discovery of antifungal drugs is toxicity due to the similarities between the fungal and human eukaryotic genomes. The cyclic peptide, Aureobasidin A (AbA), patented in 1992 by Takara Shuzo, is a potent compound with strong, fungicidal activity vs. Cryptococcus neoformans comparable to Amphotericin B. AbA is a specific inhibitor of the inositol phosphorylceramide 1 synthase (IPC1 synthase) catalyzed addition of inositolphosphate to phytoceramide, a step in the sphingolipid pathway in fungi but absent in mammals. Consistent with the lack of IPC1 synthase in mammal