The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted US Patent No. 9,034,347 to Aphios Corporation for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease.

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, Kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other spongiform encephalopathies remain major health problems. Currently there are very limited means to treat these diseases. Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases tend to manifest themselves in older individuals and as the diseases progress; the afflicted individuals are less able to care for themselves. Dr Trevor P Castor, CEO, Aphios Corporation states that, "It is therefore highly desirable to have simple therapies which can be administered (e.g. oral formulations) without the need for specially trained healthcare providers."

Dr Castor continues, "Our recent in vitro studies have shown that our lead Alzheimer's disease drug candidate, APH-1104, a potent analog of Bryostatin-1, is neuroprotective by a-secretase activation via novel PKC isoforms, down-regulation of pro-inflammatory and angiogenic processes and the substitution of ß-amyloid for its soluble and harmless relative, sAPP-a at concentrations which are orders of magnitude lower than conventional APP modulators. Our in vivo studies show that we can rapidly restore cognitive performance in AD-transgenic mice by oral administration of an oil-based formulation of Bryostatin-1."

Aphios Corporation is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing green enabling technology platforms and enhanced natural therapeutic products for health maintenance and disease prevention, and the treatment of cancers and supportive care, infectious diseases such as HIV, and CNS disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis.