Oral oxytocin for abdominal pain

Descrizione del progetto

Un nuovo approccio al trattamento del dolore addominale cronico

Milioni di persone in tutto il mondo soffrono di dolore addominale cronico, una patologia spesso legata alla sindrome dell’intestino irritabile (SII) e alle malattie infiammatorie intestinali (MII). Con oltre il 10 % della popolazione mondiale colpita, l’impatto costa all’Europa circa 115 miliardi di euro all’anno. È necessaria una soluzione sicura e mirata. In questo contesto, il progetto GUTOCINS, finanziato dal CER, sta affrontando questa sfida sviluppando analgesici peptidici stabili a livello intestinale che alleviano il dolore direttamente alla fonte. Questo approccio garantisce un’elevata efficacia, riducendo al contempo al minimo gli effetti collaterali sistemici. Ottimizzando i composti brevettati in candidati farmaci orali e generando dati preclinici, GUTOCINS si propone di aprire la strada alla traslazione clinica. Potrebbe inoltre contribuire a ridurre l’onere sociale di queste malattie croniche.

Obiettivo

Chronic abdominal pain is a widespread debilitating condition commonly associated with gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). IBS and IBD affect more than 10% of the global population, leaving a severe and steadily growing socio-economic burden on society (€115 billion/year in Europe in direct and indirect health care costs). Adequate pain management for these conditions is imperative but remains challenging since classical analgesics are poorly effective, associated with adverse effects, and can even exacerbate disease progression.

In this project, we will advance a new class of gut-stable peptide analgesics to target abdominal pain at its origin in the gut. This represents a highly innovative treatment strategy with a large safety window due to its gut-specific action and negligible risk of systemic off-target effects. It also addresses a long-standing problem in the peptide therapeutics industry, namely the lack of oral peptide drugs. The objective of this project is to optimise our patented lead compounds towards oral drug candidates and generate robust and supporting preclinical data for clinical translation. The proof-of-concept data will then be used to engage with industry partners and other supporters to advance these drug candidates into the clinic for the treatment of chronic abdominal pain. Our gut-specific treatment approach along with this new class of analgesics could induce a highly desired paradigm shift in how to treat chronic abdominal pain and gastrointestinal disorders, an area with unprecedented unmet medical need. This could benefit millions of people worldwide, improve their quality of life, and help reduce the substantial socio-economic burden that chronic abdominal pain has on society.