BioCentury
ARTICLE | Preclinical News

Calico team publishes on vanishing white matter disease

March 7, 2018 12:20 AM UTC

In a paper published in eLife, researchers from Calico Life Sciences LLC (South San Francisco, Calif.) and AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) suggested that activating eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B (EIF2B) could help treat vanishing white matter disease (VWMD).

A genetic neurodegenerative leukodystrophy largely found in young children, VWMD is characterized by chronic demyelination and caused by a variety of mutations in ElF2B. Inhibition of ElF2B guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity has been linked to the activation of the integrated stress response signaling pathway, both of which have been associated with the disease in previous studies...