twoXAR completes initial studies of new rheumatoid arthritis drug candidates

The objective of these studies was to establish preliminary efficacy data in vivo for 10 separate repurposing candidates.

Each of the candidates were identified using twoXAR’s computational drug discovery platform which rapidly performs unbiased analyses of biological, chemical, and clinical data to predict and rank potentially efficacious drugs for repurposing. twoXAR computationally screened a library of more than 25,000 potential drug candidates and the 10 with the strongest evidence for potential efficacy and safety were selected for these studies.

In vivo studies were conducted by Vium, Inc. utilizing their state-of-the-art living informatics platform which integrates a fully automated physical and digital infrastructure to capture a wide range of high-fidelity data — including physiology, behavior, environment, husbandry, and procedures.

"The completion of these studies is an exciting milestone that further validates software-driven approaches in rapidly identifying viable new drug candidates for devastating diseases like RA," said Andrew M. Radin, co-founder and Chief Business Officer at twoXAR.

"With a number of the candidates we identified for RA showing promising efficacy in these initial pre-clinical studies we have once again shown that technology can lead discovery and deliver results faster and more efficiently than what is currently possible utilizing traditional wet-lab approaches."

Efficacy data was generated for the candidate therapeutics both conventionally, using caliper measurements of joint swelling and traditional arthritis scores, and via the Vium Arthritis Index. Vium’s digital index, which was recently presented at the 2016 American Association of Immunologists annual meeting, is highly correlated to the conventional RA joint size, clinical score and histopathology.

Three testing doses for each candidate were determined by identifying the maximally tolerated and minimally efficacious doses based on previous non-RA studies in animal models.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by synovial inflammation, swelling and auto-antibody production, which results in the destruction of cartilage and bone in the small joints of hands, wrists and feet. RA affects up to one percent of the global population and severely reduces quality of life, mobility, productivity, and emotional well-being. Current treatments for RA are not effective at slowing disease progression or alleviating symptoms in all patients.

Additionally, many treatments target components of the immune system, which can lead to life-threatening infections and cancer. There is a need to develop therapies for RA with improved safety profiles that relieve symptoms and slow disease progression in more patients.