Seurat Therapeutics has published data from studies of its intranasal IGF-1 in rat models for the treatment of migraine in the journal Brain Research. The studies were conducted at the University of Chicago, which has licensed patents for the use of nasal IGF-1 to treat migraines to Seurat.
According to the article, the formulation demonstrated the potential of intranasal IGF-1 for the treatment of migraine by significantly reducing markers of trigeminal activation, including oxidative stress and levels of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) expression, which are associated with migraine. No impact on blood glucose levels was observed.
Seurat Chief Scientific Officer and University of Chicago Professor Richard Kraig said, “IGF-1’s therapeutic effects involve reducing oxidative stress and the amount of CGRP, which are known to be involved in human migraine headaches. This suggests that IGF-1 alone or in combination with other ant-CGRP agents may provide better migraine relief, something we are actively testing in the lab.”
Seurat CEO Yuan Zhang commented, “Further studies and clinical trials will be needed to validate this observation in humans, but we are enthusiastic about the results.” Chairman Martin Sanders added, “If continued testing demonstrates that nasal delivery of IGF-1 is safe and effective for treatment of migraine headaches in humans, Seurat has the potential of helping approximately 39 million migraine sufferers in the United States.”
In October 2018, Seurat announced that it had received a $510,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke for development of intranasal IGF-1 for this indication. The company has said that it will use an intranasal atomizer from Kurve Technology for delivery of the formulation.
Read the Seurat Therapeutics press release.
Read the Brain Research article.
