ACUMEN PHARMACEUTICALS RECEIVES SBIR AWARD FROM NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, California (BW BioWire2K) August 11, 2005 - The National Institute on Aging has awarded Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a Small Business Innovation Research Grant to develop a diagnostic to test for levels of Alzheimer’s disease-causing ADDLs (amyloid-beta derived diffusible ligands).

The grant will fund development of assays employing Acumen’s proprietary ADDL-specific antibodies to detect and quantify ADDLs in clinical samples from Alzheimer’s disease patients.

“We are pleased to receive NIA funding to develop a test that will allow clinicians and Alzheimer’s researchers to detect the actual protein structures responsible for Alzheimer’s disease,” says Dr. Grant A. Krafft, Founder, Chairman and Chief Science Officer of Acumen Pharmaceuticals.

ADDLs are small soluble protein assemblies, elevated in brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s patients. They cross the blood-brain barrier and have been detected at low levels in serum.  Dr. Susan Catalano, Acumen’s Director of Research and Co-Principal Investigator of the grant stated, “Our challenge is to correlate cognitive deficits in patients with ADDL levels in serum and cerebrospinal fluid using our ADDL-specific antibodies.  Several prominent clinical researchers of Alzheimer’s disease will help us in these important studies.” 

A serum-based ADDL diagnostic will revolutionize clinical testing of experimental Alzheimer’s drugs by enhancing the accuracy of patient selection and by demonstrating whether new treatments can reduce ADDL levels.  This should translate into significant time and cost savings in the development and registration of new Alzheimer’s drugs.

Acumen Pharmaceuticals’ mission is to discover and develop new therapies and diagnostics for ADDL-related diseases such as mild-cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.  An emerging consensus now supports the following Alzheimer’s disease mechanism.  1) A small protein called amyloid beta 1-42 accumulates in the brain with age, and sticks together to form ADDLs.  2) Once formed, ADDLs bind tightly to specific receptors on a subset of nerve cells that are essential for learning and memory.  3) ADDL receptor binding triggers abnormal signaling, blocking essential memory-forming processes and activating other processes that lead to nerve cell degeneration and death.

Therapies that interfere with ADDLs promise to stop and reverse the memory failure of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment, and an effective ADDL diagnostic eventually may identify ADDL-positive individuals at the earliest stages of memory impairment.

For further information, please contact:
David Summa, President and CEO,
Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
650-875-7700, media@acumenpharm.com;
Or visit Acumen’s website at www.acumenpharm.com.