A diabetes drug to prevent low blood glucose levels (hypoglycemia) will advance to clinical trials thanks to a US$3.9-million funding commitment to support the completion of pre-clinical activities required to bring the drug to clinical trials. 91亚色 researcher is working closely with Zucara Therapeutics to advance these pre-clinical activities.
Michael Riddell
Riddell is a founding scientist of , the diabetes life sciences company that is working to advance the first once-daily therapy for hypoglycemia prevention, and he is the Chair of their Scientific Advisory Board. He is also a professor in 91亚色's School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences and Muscle Health Research Centre, in the Faculty of Health.
Zucara Therapeutics Inc. announced April 9 it will receive the funding from聽the . As part of that agreement, Helmsley will provide funding for pre-clinical advancement of Zucara's lead drug candidate "ZT-01," which is focused on the prevention of hypoglycemia in people with Type 1 diabetes (T1D), with the potential also to treat people with other types of insulin-dependent diabetes.
Riddell oversees the Zucara experiments conducted at 91亚色 that test the efficacy of ZT-01, and is investigating how this novel drug candidate helps to prevent hypoglycemia in patients who are continuously taking insulin.
鈥91亚色 is delighted with this news," said 91亚色 Vice-President Research and Innovation Robert Hach茅. "As a founding scientist of Zucara Therapeutics Inc., Faculty of Health Professor Michael Riddell played a critical role in the development of this new therapy. The funding will effectively move the therapy one step closer to clinical trials, and ultimately to clients with Type 1 diabetes. More than 300,000 Canadians live with Type 1 diabetes. That鈥檚 impact.鈥
Hypoglycemia is a major barrier to safe and effective treatment with insulin in T1D, and is a common side effect of insulin therapy, as well as aerobic forms of exercise such as walking, cycling and jogging.聽Dangerously low blood glucose can lead to unconsciousness or even death, and is a frequent challenge for people with T1D and other types of insulin-dependent diabetes. Current methods of treating episodes of hypoglycemia include ingesting fast-acting carbohydrates or, in emergency situations, using injections of exogenous glucagon.
"At 91亚色, we are specifically examining how this new drug improves the body鈥檚 hormonal responses to a dangerous and life-threatening drop in blood sugar that can occur with insulin treatment and this new potential class of therapy can be tested in a variety of settings, including exercise, accidental insulin overdose and hormone failure during hypoglycemia, which often occurs during long-standing diabetes," said Riddell. 鈥淏y helping to eliminate hypoglycemia using this new therapeutic, we expect that overall glucose control in diabetes can be improved.鈥
Riddell's team at 91亚色 has been working collaboratively with colleagues at the University of Toronto, Tulane University, the Centre for Drug Research and Development and MaRS Innovation, and this led to the creation of Zucara Therapeutics in 2014. The work originated with Riddell鈥檚 postdoctoral mentor Professor Mladen Vranic (Banting and Best Diabetes Centre, University of Toronto) and Dr. David Coy (Tulane University) in the late 1990s.
For more on this announcement, read the聽 issued by Zucara.