Peptide therapy for alcohol abuse disorder

This technology is a pharmaceutical therapy which uses the Spexin peptide to lower the urge to consume alcohol in the treatment of alcohol addiction.

Unmet Need: Effective method to reduce voluntary alcohol consumption

Alcohol abuse disorder is an extremely common addiction, affecting up to 208 million people worldwide. It is often treated with therapy and medication, but these treatments show limited success and undesired side effects. Current pharmaceutical options either make the experience of drinking alcohol unpleasant (e.g. disulfiram) or reduce the urge to drink (e.g. naltrexone) and have limited effectiveness. If left untreated, alcohol addiction can have serious health consequences, in addition to the societal issues that may arise.

The Technology: Spexin peptide as a therapeutic for reducing alcohol consumption

This technology utilizes the Spexin peptide as a therapeutic treatment of alcoholism. The Spexin peptide has been shown to play a role in appetite and obesity and is down-regulated in obese patients. Spexin effectively inhibits the urge to consume alcohol through a unique biological pathway, different than those utilized by current treatment options.

This technology has been validated in mouse models, which show a reduction in voluntary alcohol consumption after treatment with Spexin.

Applications:

• Therapeutic treatment for alcohol abuse disorder
• Gene therapy-based treatment for addiction
• Combination alcohol abuse therapy with disulfiram
• General weight loss method

Advantages:

• Targets different pathway than current therapeutic methods for treatment of alcohol abuse disorder
• Can work in conjunction with other treatment methods
• Can potentially induce a significant reduction of alcohol intake

Lead Inventor:

Paul D. Berk, M.D.

Patent Information:

Patent Status

Related Publications:

• Walewski JL, Ge F, Lobdell H, Levin N, Schwartz GJ, Vasselli, JR, Pomp A, Dakin G, Berk PD. “Spexin is a novel human peptide that reduces adipocyte uptake of long chain fatty acids and causes weight loss in rodents with diet-induced obesity” Obesity. 2014 Jul 3; 22(2): 1643-1652.

• Clugston RD, Jiang H, Lee MX, Piantedosi R, Yuen JJ, Ramakrishnan R, Lewis MJ, Gottesman ME, Huang LS, Goldberg IJ, Berk PD, Blaner WS. “Altered hepatic lipid metabolism in C57BL/6 mice fed alcohol: a targeted lipidomic and gene expression study” J Lipid Res. 2011 Nov 1; 52(11): 2021-2031.

Tech Ventures Reference:

• IR CU16253

• Licensing Contact: Ron Katz