KineMed has entered into a collaboration with Isis Pharmaceuticals and CHDI Foundation that will use KineMed's biomarker platform in support of Isis' antisense therapeutics program for Huntington's disease.
The collaboration builds on an agreement announced last year between KineMed and CHDI to develop companion biomarkers for tracking therapeutic response in HD. This new agreement will provide Isis with access to markers for use in its HD drug development program.
Under last year's CHDI agreement, KineMed used its mass spec platform to measure in vivo dynamics of the huntingtin protein, including protein half-life and synthesis rate, allowing for the evaluation of the rate of metabolism of the huntingtin protein as a function of polyQ length and whether investigational drugs have an effect on its production and clearance.
KineMed's Dynamic Proteomics platform uses wide-scale isotopic labeling combined with mass spectrometry to track the kinetics of protein activity, providing insight into biological pathways and disease processes.
"A pharmacodynamic biomarker could be an important contribution to our clinical development efforts, and we look forward to working with KineMed and CHDI to evaluate KineMed's biomarker platform in our Huntington's disease program, Frank Bennett, senior vice president of research at Isis, said in a statement.