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BALTIMORE, Md. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – It has been found that inhibition of this brain enzyme can be therapeutic in animal models of stroke, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Unfortunately, these drugs have poor penetration into the brain, which has hampered their clinical development. Now, there is new hope after that same brain enzyme was found in the gut during IBD flareups, opening the door to tackle neuro and gut disease through a simple pill.

For years, scientists have worked on drugs to inhibit a dangerous enzyme in the brain, called GCP2, which is increased in strokes and neurological dysfunction.

“The problem has been that we’ve developed all these drugs that don’t really get to the brain very well. It’s hard to get drugs across the brain blood barrier,” explained Barbara Slusher, PhD, a professor and director at Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery.

Decades of research produced drugs to target the enzyme, but no way to actually deliver them to the brain.

“But about that same time, there was a group of scientists working in gastroenterology that found that this same enzyme, that we had been studying in the brain, goes way up if you have inflammatory bowel disease,” explained Slusher.

The neuroteam realized the drugs didn’t penetrate the brain, but would likely work in the gut–good news because the existing IBD drugs don’t help 30 percent of the patients.

“We gave them to animals that had an IBD syndrome, and we found that their symptoms got better,” said Slusher.

And this opened the door to inhibiting the GCP2 in the gut using oral medication.

“So, we took these potent drugs that we had made that we couldn’t get to the brain, we put them orally and they got to the gut,” added Slusher.

The drug has been proven to work in multiple animal models, so Slusher and teams are in the process of establishing clinical trials and business formation—preparing to go to market.

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