Syngle Therapeutics is developing a vectorized antibody treatment for Parkinson’s disease. This revolutionary approach has now been successfully tested in an acute Parkinson’s animal model demonstrating neuroprotection and positive effects on motor symptoms.

More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease and this number is rapidly growing. Current medication helps reduce symptoms, but a disease-modifying treatment that can slow down or halt progression of the disease is not yet available.

In Parkinson’s pathology, the soluble aggregates of alpha-synuclein, called oligomers, play a key role. Syngle’s proprietary antibody aims to specifically bind with these toxic oligomers and provide a targeted treatment. By using a gene therapy approach, cells in the brain are made to produce the antibody where it is needed. This overcomes the inherent problem of antibodies hardly passing into the brain and will only require a one-time administration for a long-lasting treatment.

This antibody-based gene therapy has now been evaluated in an acute Parkinson’s animal model, in which neuronal damage and motor function problems occur shortly after inducing alpha-synuclein overexpression in the brain.

In this proof-of-concept study, Syngle’s antibody-based gene therapy treatment resulted in a reduction of neuronal damage in the brain regions most affected in Parkinson’s disease. A delay in the development of motor symptoms was also observed. These findings indicate that our vectorized antibody approach offers perspective for a therapeutic intervention at the root of Parkinson’s disease, delaying or preventing progression.

Guus Scheefhals, CEO of Syngle Therapeutics: “We are very enthusiastic about these encouraging results. This highly motivates us in our endeavors to advance our antibody-based gene therapy towards clinical evaluation, an important stepping stone for this potential future disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson’s patients.” 

We are grateful for the financial support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, a US non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Their funding (Grant ID: 17655) has enabled us to perform the current proof-of-concept study.