July 19 Preclinical Quick Takes: Samumed's Alzheimer's candidate; plus a CRISPR RNA editing tool, new targets for fibrosis and pain

Samumed's Alzheimer's candidate reduces tau pathology, inflammation
Samumed LLC (San Diego, Calif.) reported in an Aging Cell paper that SM07883 reduced tau phosphorylation, pathological tau aggregates, neuroinflammation, weight loss and mortality in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Samumed began a Phase I trial of the DYRK1A inhibitor in April.

EdiGene founder reports CRISPR RNA editing tool
An EdiGene Inc. (Beijing, China) and Peking University team led by EdiGene founder Wensheng Wei reported a single base RNA editing system, LEAPER (leveraging endogenous ADAR for programmable editing of RNA), in a Nature Biotechnology paper that uses inactive Cas13 and guide RNAs to recruit native ADAR enzymes to convert adenine bases into inosine. The tech follows at least two other reported RNA editing tools, including REPAIR from Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, which fuses ADAR2 to deactivated Cas13 to convert A to I in RNA. This year, a University of Tuebingen and Stanford University team introduced a method called RESTORE, which uses antisense oligonucleotides to recruit endogenous ADAR for A to I conversion...