Disease-modifying therapy targets the senescent skin cells that cause persistent chronic inflammation.
Rubedo Life Sciences has used the platform of the LSX World Conference 2023 to announce the selection of the first-in-class development candidate RLS-1496 for the treatment of dermatological conditions using its ALEMBIC™ drug discovery platform.
Longevity.Technology: Biopharma Rubedo aims to develop disease-modifying therapies for chronic age-related diseases, and its R&D program in dermatology started in Q4 2021, successfully progressing from target discovery to candidate nomination in one-and-a-half years. This development marks a significant milestone for the company, and the program will now advance to IND-enabling studies, with first-in-human studies expected early next year.
Rubedo’s development candidate RLS-1496 was shown to significantly reduce senescence signatures associated with skin senescent cells in histopathological assessments. The company’s ALEMBIC™ AI platform enables the detection and selective targeting of specific cell populations that drive pathology, making it possible to develop senescence signatures that uniquely identify and profile heterogeneous senescent and senescent-like cell populations in clinical samples of diseased tissues.
Marco Quarta, CEO & Co-Founder of Rubedo Life Sciences, said: “We’re thrilled to nominate our first disease-modifying development candidate for our dermatology program, which targets skin senescent cell types that drive chronic degenerative dermatological conditions associated with biological aging processes.
“Unlike current non-steroidal topical treatments that only treat the symptoms of inflammation, we believe RLS-1496 has the potential to be the first disease-modifying therapy to provide sustained relief for patients suffering from chronic conditions like dermatitis and psoriasis by targeting the skin senescent cells that cause persistent chronic inflammation [1].”
“Many skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis are chronic immune-mediated inflammatory conditions that generally lack a cure, despite available therapies. There is a need for therapies with novel modes of action which have the potential to be disease-modifying interventions,” said Ofir Moreno, PhD, SVP, Drug Discovery.
“Our preclinical data from RLS-1496 support advancement for further development and also highlight the value of our ALEMBIC™ AI Platform in facilitating drug discovery [1].”
Rubedo’s ALEMBIC™ is an AI-augmented drug discovery platform that enables detection and selective targeting of specific cell populations that drive pathology. Using its proprietary database that contains terabytes of internally-generated tissue analysis, and ALEMBIC’s extensive portfolio of proprietary algorithms, such as machine learning models, Rubedo was able to develop senescence signatures to uniquely identify and profile heterogeneous senescent and senescent-like cell populations in clinical samples of diseased tissues. ALEMBIC™ Senescence Signatures were utilized to analyze skin samples derived from patients with chronic dermatological conditions, such as dermatitis and psoriasis.
Inflammation and inflammaging’s impact on skin health and aging has led to the development of novel therapies targeting skin senescence cells, as Rubedo’s RLS-1496 aims to do – this approach could lead to the development of highly effective and targeted therapies for chronic conditions such as dermatitis and psoriasis. By reducing inflammation and cellular senescence, these therapies could improve skin health and overall healthspan, potentially extending healthy life for millions of people worldwide.
With the selection of RLS-1496 as the first-in-class development candidate for dermatological conditions, Rubedo has taken a significant step towards achieving this goal, and the company’s ALEMBIC™ drug discovery platform also has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of additional age-related diseases in the future because it is able to selectively targeting specific cell populations that drive pathology.
