BioCentury
ARTICLE | Clinical News

Yumanity reveals Parkinson's candidate as first compound from yeast platform

December 6, 2018 9:59 PM UTC

Yumanity Therapeutics LLC (Cambridge, Mass.) and colleagues used the company's yeast platform to identify inhibitors of the enzyme stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1) that could prevent α-synuclein toxicity in Parkinson's disease. The SCD1 inhibitors are the first compounds Yumanity has disclosed from its yeast discovery platform. The company plans to enter the clinic with lead SCD1 inhibitor, YTX-7739, in 4Q19 to treat PD.

In a paper published in Cell Reports, the team showed that the SCD1 inhibitors decreased α-synuclein toxicity and increased cell growth in the yeast model. In a human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neuronal model of α-synuclein toxicity, an SCD1 inhibitor increased survival compared with vehicle. The compounds rescued α-synuclein toxicity by reducing levels of unsaturated fatty acids, which the authors think prevented overexpressed α-synuclein from binding to membranes and disrupting lipid vesicle trafficking that leads to α-synuclein aggregation and neurodegeneration...