Piperazine Based Lead Compound for Cryptosporidium Reduces Both Diarrhea and Parasites

Cryptosporidiosis is a leading cause of life-threatening diarrhea for young children and immunocompromised people and Cryptosporidium parvum, one of the two main human Cryptosporidium pathogens, is also an important cause of diarrhea in dairy calves. Despite this impact on both human and animal health, the best available treatment of Cryptosporidium is only modestly efficacious and anti-Cryptosporidium drug development is complicated by the fact that rodents do not get diarrhea from Cryptosporidium strains relevant to humans.

Technology Overview:

Researchers at the University of Vermont has developed a suite of phenotypic assays to ensure pipeline diversity and to determine molecular mode of action for potential Cryptosporidium growth inhibitors and has developed a dairy model of cryptosporidiosis to determine clinical response in animals as well. With these tools, the lab identified a piperazine based lead compound, MMV665917, and treatment of infected calves resulted in both prompt resolution of diarrhea and reduced total fecal oocyte shedding by 94%, establishing MMV665917 as an outstanding lead compound for Cryptosporidium drug development.

Further Details:

• Clinical and microbiologic efficacy of the piperazine-based drug lead MMV665917 in the dairy calf cryptosporidiosis model. Stebbins E. et al PMC5774826
• A suite of phenotypic assays to ensure pipeline diversity when prioritizing drug-like Cryptosporidium growth inhibitors. Jumani RS et al PMC6478823

Benefits:

• Safe and effective novel lead compound.
• Treats both parasitic infection and clinical symptoms.
• Can treat both establish infections and provide prophylaxis protection
• Easy synthesis and modification for optimization

Applications:

• Treatment of both human and bovine Cryptosporidium infections.
• Potential prophylaxis applications.

Opportunity:

• Looking for both licensing and industry collaboration for optimization of lead compound

Patents:

• US Non-Provisional Application US20180064711A1 
• EP Patent Application EP3285764A4

Seeking:

• Development partner
• Licensing