Approximately 40 million Americans suffer from peripheral neuropathy. Symptoms can include:

• A sensation of wearing an invisible “glove” or “sock”

• Burning sensation or freezing pain

• Sharp, stabbing, shooting, or electric-like pain

• Extreme sensitivity to touch

• Difficulty in sleeping due to feet and leg pain

• Loss of balance and coordination

• Muscle weakness, cramping or twitching

• Difficulty walking or moving arms

• Unusual sweating

• Abnormalities in blood pressure or pulse

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There are several causes of peripheral neuropathy including diabetes, toxins (such as chemotherapeutic agents and alcohol), viral infections and systemic diseases. Unfortunately there are currently no available therapies to treat the sensory deficits of peripheral neuropathy (numbness, weakness, loss of proprioception, etc…). The only long-term solution to treat patients with peripheral neuropathy is to heal the nerves.

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Neurotrophic factors (NTFs) are small peptides that promote the survival and regeneration of nerves and PeriphaGen's NET technology is ideal for targeting the delivery of these peptides into at risk nerves. Following a simple intradermal skin injection the NET drug candidate is taken up by resident nerve endings (1) then, via retrograde transport, moves to the dorsal root ganglion where it transduces neurons with high efficiency. Once in the dorsal root ganglia the NET drug candidate directs the production of the NTF (2), which protects the infected nerve and via local release of the NTF, neighboring uninfected nerves as well (3).

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PeriphaGen's first NTF NET drug candidate is PGN-503, which has been developed to treat chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) associated with adjuvant treatment of breast cancer.