Results from a Phase II Trial of Localized Senolytics for Diabetic Macular Edema

Diabetics tend to develop retinopathy and macular edema, disrupting retinal structure and function, and leading to progressive and presently irreversible blindness. The presence of senescent cells is likely a significant contribution to this process, the retina negatively affected by the pro-inflammation, pro-growth signals produced by these errant cells. UNITY Biotechnology, one of the earliest biotech companies working on senolytics to clear senescent cells, has been pursuing the strategy of local administration of small molecule senolytic drugs, using low doses to only destroy senescent cells in one area of the body. This is an approach that failed for osteoarthritis in the knee, but appears to be working for macular edema in the eye. Local administration of senolytics in human clinical trials is an expensive way to test whether or not the impact of the inflammatory signaling of senescent cells is localized to a meaningful degree, a topic on which there is some debate, and in which the answers may differ considerably from tissue to tissue. UNITY Biotechnology, a biotechnology company developing therapeutics to slow, halt, or reverse diseases of aging, today announced 12-week and 18-week data from its Phase 2 BEHOLD study of UBX1325, a senolytic Bcl-xL inhibitor, in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME). At 18 weeks after a single UBX1325 injection, the mean change in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of UBX1325-treated subjects was an increase of 6.1...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs