Neuroene Therapeutics Awarded $1.5 Million to Develop Anti-Seizure Compound for Epilepsy

October 29, 2018

Neuroene Therapeutics has received a $1.5 million NIH Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant to optimize vitamin K analogues that could improve seizure control in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Richard Himes, Ph.D., a chemist at the College of Charleston, serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer.

The SBIR grant will enable Neuroene Therapeutics to test the efficacy and safety of its lead compounds, which are analogues of a naturally occurring form of vitamin K that is essential for mitochondrial and neuronal health.

The form of vitamin K needed by the brain is not the same as the vitamin K we get from foods in our diet. The vitamin K we eat must first be processed by intestinal bacteria before transport to the brain, and then within neurons must be converted into the specific form of Vitamin K that is needed for mitochondrial and neuronal health.

Because the compound developed by Neuroene Therapeutics mimics this specific form of Vitamin K that the neuron needs (not the ingested form) and because it travels directly to the brain, it bypasses the need for transport systems.