Spinal cord injuries (SCI) affect 35 000 patients a year in the United States, Europe and Japan while 1,3 millions of persons worldwide are currently living with disabilities resulting from SCI.

Whereas no approved treatment is currently available, NEURONAX is developing a first-in class candidate-drug, NX210, in order to promote regeneration of nerve fibers and functional improvement.

NX210 is a patented peptide derived from a protein naturally secreted by specialized ependymal cells of the central nervous system, and able to act on survival and plasticity of various cell types, especially the nervous cells. Thus, this compound has shown neuro-protective and neuro-restorative properties with an observed regrowth of nerve fibers and an improvement of functionalities spinal cord injured animals suggesting the interest of this first-in-class product in the treatment of traumatic lesions of the nervous system, a huge medical need without efficient treatment. A program of preclinical regulatory studies has recently been completed and no apparent toxicity was observed. Thus, clinical trial is expected to begin next year.

Moreover, because the different data obtained have suggested a broad range of other applications for NX210, we have started to investigate some of them in order to expand the development of this technology for the treatment of major debilitating disorders such as TBI, stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, myelin disorders…

NEURONAX has extended its competencies and is currently developing programs centered on adult stem cells expansion and processes to optimize culturing technologies allowing the clinical use of the cellular products.

Adult stem cells have been shown to have various interesting capacities in differentiating into several cell types such as bone, muscle, cartilage, neuron… Thus, their therapeutic application could lead to a new brand of treatment for numerous pathologies: inflammatory diseases, myocardial infarction, bone disease, diabete …. In the neurologic field, their interest for the treatment of neurological disorders has been shown by multiple academic and private groups.

NEURONAX takes part in this effort toward regenerative therapy and has developed culture protocols for research or therapeutic purpose.

NEURONAX has expertise in cell culture and cell-based assays, and can offer its competencies in different fields to support your projects:

- Testing of biological activity of compounds on normal or pathological-induced cells to characterize potential neuroprotective or neurotrophic effects

- Cell culture:

- various cells available: fibroblasts, nervous cells (oligodendrocytes, neurons, DRG, …), mesenchymal stem cells,

- various types: cell lines or primary culture,

- from various species: mouse, rat or human

- Cell-based assays: toxicity, neuroprotection, viability, proliferation, differentiation, neurite outgrowth,

- Cell characterization: phenotyping, secretion of factors (cytokines/growth factors)

- Custom cell isolation and cell culture preparation

- Molecular analyses: Nucleic acid purification, genic expression measurement, expression profiling

- Experimentation design: preclinical study design, in vitro test on human or animal materials.

Expertise of NEURONAX is continuously expanding. For more information, please contact us.

Moreover, NEURONAX is member of Analgesia Partnership, the first dedicated platform combining Academic and Industrial structures with a renowned expertise in analgesia research and complementary skills in drug development.