Domainex,  a drug discovery company with a reputation for speed and innovation built on an exceptional track record of drug candidate delivery, has successfully completed a series of laboratory studies examining the in vivo effects of its proprietary selective inhibitors of IKK-epsilon and TBK1 in inflammation models.   In four separate studies a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge was delivered either to the lungs or systemically to mimic the effect of inflammatory disease.

In these experiments Domainex showed that its orally-delivered compounds can inhibit the expression of a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-alpha, RANTES, IL-1-beta, and IL-6, and maintain prolonged activity against many of the cytokines for at least 20 hours.  No side-effects were evident in these studies. These results are extremely promising in the search for new treatments of life-limiting diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Domainex’s IKKe/TBK1 programme is first-in-class, and promises to offer a disease-modifying treatment for COPD patients, whereas existing treatments merely provide them with symptomatic relief.

Domainex’s Director of Research, Dr Trevor Perrior said: “These exciting results clearly show that Domainex’s programme on IKKe/TBK1 offers the prospect of new treatments for a number of inflammatory diseases, including psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and COPD. It’s also very significant that the compounds can be delivered orally, because in many of these diseases - such as psoriasis and COPD - patients are in great need of effective oral medicines”.

Domainex’s chief executive officer, Dr Eddy Littler said, “This is a major achievement by Domainex and we will build upon this success with further in vivo models of inflammatory diseases.  Our first disease model will be for COPD, a disease which has high medical need and enormous commercial potential.  Our compounds are likely to achieve the highly-attractive profile of being safe, effective, and orally-delivered anti-inflammatory compounds”.

Domainex will continue to study the utility of these compounds as treatments for COPD, and other inflammatory diseases.  It hopes to partner the programme soon and to proceed to phase I clinical trials.