Alba Therapeutics reports breakthrough diabetes results

The researchers reported a direct link between zonulin-mediated increased intestinal permeability and type 1 diabetes (T1D) in the BB/wor rat model of diabetes. The investigators were also able to successfully prevent the onset of the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells and the onset of T1D in these animals by using the specific zonulin blocker AT-1001.

Daily oral administration of the drug, beginning before the onset of auto-immunity in the diabetic prone rats, cut the incidence of the disease by two-thirds, and completely blocked the development of autoimmune antibodies in the treatment responders.

These results constitute the first successful result in preventing the autoimmune process characteristic of T1D by blocking the zonulin-mediated abnormal intestinal permeability.

“These results go well beyond the development of a prevention strategy for T1D,” said Dr Alessio Fasano, professor of pediatrics, medicine and physiology at The University of Maryland School of Medicine. “They open a new field of investigation in which the interplay between host and environment at the mucosal level may help us understanding the molecular basis of many diseases.”

“These results reinforce our conviction that the zonulin pathway provides a roadmap for the discovery and development of innovative products to treat many important diseases, including diabetes, in ways previously thought to be inconceivable” stated Dr Blake Paterson, CEO of Alba.

Alba Therapeutics is a Baltimore-based biopharmaceutical company formed in 2004 and dedicated to commercializing disease-modifying therapeutics and drug delivery adjuvants based on the zonulin pathway. Alba’s lead molecule, AT-1001, is targeted towards the treatment of celiac disease and type 1 diabetes and is in the final stages of pre-human testing.