Tiziana Life Sciences Ltd (NASDAQ:TLSA) said its study on foralumab, the company's lead candidate, was published in Neurology Today, the esteemed news source of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).
The study sheds light on foralumab's potential in attenuating microglial activation in non-active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (na-SPMS) patients with progression independent of relapse (PIRA).
“PIRA is a condition that poses a major unmet need for patients with multiple sclerosis,” the study’s author Tarun Singhal, Director, PET Imaging Program in Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham Healthcare System, and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.
Singhal noted that there are currently no disease-modifying therapies approved for these types of progressive MS patients.
The study evaluated the effect of intranasal foralumab on microglial activation in na-SPMS patients with PIRA using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with the radiology marker [F-18]PBR06-PET. Notably, five out of six patients (83%) exhibited a qualitative reduction on [F-18]PBR06-PET in multiple brain regions after three and six months of nasal foralumab treatment.
“This study provides initial evidence that this fully human anti-CD3 has the potential to benefit this type of MS, which is the most difficult form to treat,” Singhal added.
John Corboy, MD, FAAN, Director of the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, echoed Dr. Singhal's sentiments, underscoring the significance of altering microglial activation in MS patients and lauding foralumab's potential impact.
“We do not have any recognized approaches to try to alter microglial activation at present, which everyone agrees at this point in time is relevant throughout the life of a patient with MS,” Corboy said.
“Even ocrelizumab [Ocrevus] for primary progressive MS has modest impact, so the potential here is great, and the proof of principle that you can alter the microglia is a real punchline.”