News – Alectos Therapeutics

Discovery of MK-8719, A Potent O-GlcNAcase Inhibitor as a Potential Treatment for Tauopathies

Inhibition of O-GlcNAcase (OGA) has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach to treat tau pathology in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. Beginning with carbohydrate-based lead molecules, we pursued an optimization strategy of reducing polar surface area to align the desired drug-like properties of potency, selectivity, high central nervous system (CNS) [...]

September 10th, 2019|Tags: Alzheimer's, Merck, MK-8719, NFTs, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Tau|

The Discovery and Characterization of [18F]MK‐8553, a Novel PET Tracer for Imaging O‐GlcNAcase (OGA)

[18F]MK-8553 is a high affinity, selective OGA inhibitor with properties suitable for imaging OGA and determining central enzyme occupancy in both preclinical and clinical studies. Currently [18F]MK‐8553 is being utilized in humans as a PET tracer to assess CNS target engagement to select a dose for clinical proof of concept trials with a small molecule [...]

July 14th, 2016|Tags: Alzheimer's, Merck, MK-8553, OGA|

Alectos Therapeutics Announces FDA Orphan Drug Designation for MK-8719: An Investigational Small-molecule OGA Inhibitor for Treatment of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Advances Novel Tau-directed Strategy for Treating Neurodegenerative Disease Phase 1 Clinical Trial Completed Vancouver, British Columbia (April 20, 2016) – Alectos Therapeutics Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to OGA inhibitor MK-8719 for the treatment of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Alectos also announced completion of [...]

April 20th, 2016|Tags: Alzheimer's, Merck, MK-8719, OGA, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Tau|

Preclinical Data Disclosed for Tau PET Tracer MK-6240: A Potential Clinical Biomarker for OGA Inhibitor MK-8719

Apr 18, 2016 – Alectos Therapeutics partner Merck, known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada, today disclosed preclinical data for potential clinical biomarker [18F]-MK-6240, a highly selective and specific tau PET tracer useful as an imaging agent for quantification of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). A pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, as well as several other neurodegenerative [...]

April 18th, 2016|Tags: Alzheimer's, Merck, MK-6240, MK-8719, OGA, Tau, Tau PET|

Alectos Supports NSERC Funding for Prof. A.J. Bennet at SFU

Feb 11, 2016 – Alectos today announced its support for NSERC funding for the group of Prof. A.J. Bennet at Simon Fraser University, Department of Chemistry, in a project titled “Fundamental Studies on the Biochemical Mechanism of Chemical Chaperoning of Glucocerebrosidase”. Parkinson's disease is a worldwide health problem that has been linked to deficiencies in [...]

February 11th, 2016|Tags: Bennet, GCase, NSERC, Parkinson's, SFU|

Alectos Engages As Industry Partner in the Canadian Glycomics Network (GlycoNet)

Feb 17, 2015 – Alectos today announced its support as an industry partner in the new Canadian Glycomics Network (GlycoNet), unveiled this month by Minister of Health Rona Ambrose with a commitment of $27.3 million in federal funding over five years. GlycoNet’s vision is to link academic, government and industry partners to deliver solutions to [...]

February 17th, 2015|Tags: GlycoNet, NSERC, SFU|

Alectos Therapeutics Announces Achievement of Phase I Clinical Milestone in Merck Alzheimer’s Collaboration

Vancouver, British Columbia (December 12, 2014) – Alectos Therapeutics Inc. today announced the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial in its collaboration with Merck, known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada, to identify and develop compounds that modulate O-linked N-acetylglucosaminidase (OGA), an enzyme that is believed to be involved in the development of [...]

December 12th, 2014|Tags: Alzheimer's, Merck, Milestone, OGA|

Alectos Announces Preclinical Results in TAPP Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Oct 26, 2014 – Alectos today announced publication of preclinical studies showing that pharmacological inhibition of O-GlcNAcase (OGA) prevents cognitive decline and amyloid plaque formation in the TAPP mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. For details, see: Yuzwa, S.A. et al. Mol Neurodegener 9:42 (2014).

October 26th, 2014|Tags: Alzheimer's, Amyloid, NFTs, OGA, SFU, TAPP, Tau, Thiamet-G|

Alectos Supports NSERC Funding for Prof. M.J. Boulanger at UVic

Oct 6, 2014 – Alectos today announced its support for NSERC funding for the group of Prof. M.J. Boulanger at the University of Victoria, Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology, in a project titled “Cloning and expression of human glucocerebrosidase”. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a worldwide health problem that is characterized by the buildup of abnormal [...]

October 6th, 2014|Tags: Boulanger, GCase, NSERC, Parkinson's, UVic|

Alectos Announces Preclinical Data for Novel Cancer Metabolism Target

May 22, 2014 – Alectos today announced publication of preclinical studies showing that both knockdown and pharmacological inhibition of O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) result in reduced metabolic output, increased apoptosis, and impaired survival in tumor cells. This data strongly supports OGT as a novel cancer metabolism target. For details, see: Ferrer, C.M. et al. Mol Cell [...]

May 22nd, 2014|Tags: Ac-5SGlcNAc, Cancer metabolism, OGT, SFU|