BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

NAMPT neuroprotection

October 2, 2014 7:00 AM UTC

Google Inc.-backed antiaging play Calico LLC has in-licensed its first molecules-inhibitors of neurodegeneration-following findings from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and The University of Iowa that the compounds protect mice from traumatic brain injury and act by inhibiting the metabolic enzyme nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase.1,2The findings present a plausible mechanism for how the molecules prevent neuronal cell death and could aid compound optimization.

The compounds were first described in 2010 by the UT Southwestern Medical Center team, which identified the parent compound-the aminopropyl carbazole P7C3-as a neuroprotective agent that improved cognitive function in aged rats and increased neuronal survival in mouse models of Parkinson's disease (PD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).3,4 That same team has built upon those studies to produce the new findings...