Sound Pharmaceuticals Receives Additional DoD Funding
Editor: We've been following for some time the efforts of Sound
Pharmaceuticals to bring a hearing regeneration drug to market. They're
not there yet, but they did just receive additional funding from the
Department of Defense. Here's the press release.
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July 2008
Sound Pharmaceuticals (SPI) has received an R&D contract award from the
ONR for approximately $1.6 million to optimize its lead drug candidate for
hearing regeneration. SPI has developed a proprietary technology for
regenerating auditory sensory cells within the inner ear of mammals
involving p27Kip1, a cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor or CKI. CKIs shut
down cell division or proliferation in many developing cells and tissues
and are often expressed in adult organs to maintain cellular quiescence or
terminal differentiation. In the hearing organ of mammals (cochlea),
p27Kip1 prevents cellular proliferation and regeneration. For this reason,
sensorineural hearing loss is irreversible and often progressive. Once
auditory hair cells are lost they are never replaced. In p27 knockout
mice, auditory hair cell regeneration occurs due to the unique ability of
supporting cells to re-enter the cell cycle, proliferate and regenerate in
to supporting cells and replacement hair cells. In p27 wild type mice,
this proliferative and regenerative ability is absent. SPI has developed
this novel technology into a drug that inhibits p27Kip1 in wild type cells
and tissues, and is injecting that drug into the cochlea of deafened
Guinea pigs. Results indicate that renewed supporting cell proliferation
and hair cell regeneration occur in animals that have lost their hearing
due to ototoxic or acoustic injury. In some animals, a return of auditory
function has been observed. The ultimate goal of this work is to restore
hearing to the severe to profoundly hearing impaired or deaf, especially
those with recent traumatic injuries. This novel regenerating strategy may
be applied to other non regenerating systems such as the brain or retina
where p27Kip1 plays a similar role.
In 2005, the Office of Naval Research began funding this hearing
regeneration project. This new funding brings the total level of funding
on this specific p27 project to approximately $3 million.
Sound Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately held biopharmaceutical
company with a focus on developing the first drugs for hearing loss and
brain injury. For more information please contact Jonathan Kil, MD,
President and CEO, 206-634-2559 or visit http://www.soundpharma.com.
