BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product R&D

Chaperoning the DJ

How Cantabio is using chaperones to rein in multiple PD pathways

October 20, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

In the latest example of post-dopamine thinking in Parkinson’s disease, Cantabio Pharmaceuticals Inc. has moved upstream of the neurotransmitter with a strategy to block the protein misfolding and oxidative damage that drive neurodegeneration in the disease. Rather than the common approach of boosting dopamine signaling, Cantabio’s strategy centers on enhancing the function of DJ-1, a target that is both a chaperone and an oxidative stress sensor, to rein in both pathways with a single compound.

“These two processes actually result in killing brain cells and causing the symptoms of the disease, and eventually the death of the patients,” said CEO Gergely Toth...