Tonix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TNXP) Holding Corp EVP of translation medicine Herbert Harris delivered an oral presentation Thursday at the Rare Disease Innovation and Partnership Summit in Philadelphia, the company announced.
The presentation, titled, “TNX-2900 (Intranasal Potentiated Oxytocin) in Development for the Treatment of Hyperphagia in Adolescents and Young Adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome,” includes data showing the enhancing effects of magnesium on the activation of oxytocin receptors.
A magnesium-enhanced formulation of intranasal oxytocin is the basis for TNX-2900, a drug in development for the treatment of pathological over-eating (hyperphagia) in adolescent and young adults with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS); and TNX-1900, which is being developed to prevent chronic migraine headaches.
“Hyperphagia is more than just insatiable appetite. It leads to extreme behavioral and metabolic effects,” Harris said. “Consequences around this abnormal food behavior can be life-threatening, particularly obesity and cardiovascular disease, the latter of which is a leading cause of death in people with PWS.”
That’s where the combination of magnesium and oxytocin comes in.
“Oxytocin is an anorexigenic hormone that reduces appetite and signals fullness,” Harris added. “The oxytocin receptor requires magnesium ions for the high-affinity conformation for signaling satiety. TNX-2900 combines oxytocin with magnesium for improved receptor binding and potentially improved therapeutic action.”
TNX-2900 has been granted Orphan Drug designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of PWS as there is no treatment currently approved for PWS-related hyperphagia.
Tonix licensed the technology to treat PWS from Inserm Transfert, the private subsidiary of Inserm (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research). The company has entered into a sponsored research agreement with Aix-Marseille Université to study oxytocin in the genetically engineered mouse model of PWS.
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