PAD Program

Target: Y2
Status: Discovery

7TM Pharma has established a platform of proprietary peptides which are potent, efficacious and selective agonists for the Y2 receptor with excellent biopharmaceutical properties. The company is developing these Y2 agonists primarily for the treatment of peripheral arterial diseases (PAD) such as atherosclerosis. This was pursued in collaboration with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals from 2004-2006 up to the stage of a pre-clinical candidate selection. The peptides show excellent pro-arteriogenic activity in restoring collateral-dependent blood flow in preclinical models of peripheral arterial insufficiency with no signs of cardiovascular side effects. The perspective in patients with peripheral arterial disease is to obtain both a symptomatic treatment through improvement of collateral blood flow plus a general disease modifying effect.

According to the Angiogenesis Foundation at least 314 million patients in Western nations would benefit from some form of angiogenesis-stimulating therapy, with atherosclerosis being the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Western societies, claiming more lives each year than all forms of cancer combined. Despite this, no effective treatment exists today.

The Target
 

The Y2 receptor is involved in the neuronal-vessel communication with neuropeptide Y being the natural agonist. A number of studies have demonstrated that Y2 receptor agonists are involved in vascular growth including the demonstration that Y2 receptor knock-out animals show spontaneously impaired wound healing with impaired neo-vascularization.