This news would have caused a spike in ctii today if not for the general market sell-off. The alliance again shows the increasing interest in delivering compounds directly into the CNS, and again proves ctii's technology is well regarded. It is true that nxco is a major player in conopeptides, don't forget though, they got the concept from the same person who founded Cognetix (Dr. Olivera). He was credited with the discovery of the naturally occuring conopeptides, but nxco was rewarded for its synthesis of the peptides (thus the name SNX in their products stands for something like synthetic neurex?). NXCO is contiunuing to synthesize other channel modulators (i.e., Na, K...), but it definitely has similar stuff with Cognetix.
Are there other conopeptides with potential for treatment, I guess so, this is from the press release "In the collaboration, CytoTherapeutics and Cognetix will focus on several CNS compounds with an initial emphasis on highly specific, high affinity calcium, sodium and potassium channel blockers. These peptides represent attractive therapeutic candidates for a broad range of neurological disorders, such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, stroke, and spinal ischemia."
The specificity and variety of the conopeptides are the key. The nervous system functions like a wired network, communications is brought about by firing patterns, which in term rely on channel and receptor dynamics.
Chuck |
