Thuris and Sigma-Tau Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite SpA, a leading Italian pharmaceutical company, announced an expansion of their on-going research collaboration to develop compounds to combat brain inflammation.

Under the new agreement, Thuris will broaden the experimental scope into living animals. Further routes of inquiry include the production of combination therapeutics for use across a host of brain disorders characterized by inflammation. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"The original collaboration produced significant results in our in vitro models of brain inflammation. These successes lead us to conclude that there is a strong likelihood that we may be able to block brain inflammation in vivo. We are pleased to see that Sigma-Tau wants to move this project into live animals," said Keith B. Hoffman, Vice President of Thuris.

Claudio Cavazza, President of Sigma-Tau, said: "We are very pleased to expand our collaboration with Thuris. The coupling of Thuris' brain inflammation models with Sigma-Tau's compounds has already produced some key results. We are confident that this expansion will lead to new therapeutic approaches."

Thuris' RapidAging technology is a system for testing potential anti-Aging and Alzheimer's drugs directly against primary pathologies including; neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid toxicity, inflammatory reactions, microglial activations and others. Thuris' proprietary RapidAging system creates these pathologies in just three to six days, enabling the rapid, precision testing of drug candidates against any or all of these targets, chronically or acutely.