A pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, Aestas Pharma Inc. is addressing development of novel and diagnostic imaging and therapeutic agents to enable early detection and reversal of severely debilitating Alzheimers diseases (AD) and Parkinsons disease (PD). Focused on that period when clinical signs are not yet pronounced could mean the firm's disease modifying AD therapeutic candidate may be combined with a biomarker for early detection of AD pathology prior to significant plaque formation or neuronal loss. The firm's lead candidate - aberrant Cdk5 PET imaging agent (AP-251) - has the potential of provideing first-in-class PET imaging tool for early detection of AD/PD pathology i.e. before significant plaque formation or neuronal loss. Derived from a patented NIH invention, the companys lead diagnostic biomarker candidate (AP-251) targets a disease specific aberrant Cdk5 complex - considered an upstream event in development of the three best known pathways for AD (Tau, amyloid, and neuroinflammatory) with a clearly differentiated mechanistic advantage offering multiple targets within amyloid, tau, mitochondrial / autophagy dysfunction, oxidative stress, and the neuro-inflammatory cascade, implicated in AD and PD pathogenesis. The companys early detection AD biomarker candidate (AP-251) is a PET tracer with the capability to detect AD pathology earlier than existing biomarkers and with the potential for development as a companion diagnostic agent (i.e., as a surrogate endpoint biomarker).
