NEW RESEARCH
Encouraging Preliminary First Results From Phase I Trial of ER-100
The epigenome, the system that helps control which genes are turned on and off in our cells, can become disrupted during aging and disease. Epigenetic restoration is based on the idea that some of those changes may be reversible, and that restoring the epigenome could help cells return to a healthier state to treat a variety of age-related diseases. Life Biosciences (Life Bio) is testing that idea in humans with an epigenetic restoration therapy called ER-100.
Today, at the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, the company announced the first results from its Phase I safety and tolerability trial: all three patients with glaucoma tolerated the treatment without adverse events or problems related to ER-100, and two of the three showed improvements in vision.
ER-100 is a gene therapy that delivers three genes, Oct4, Sox2, and Klf4 (OSK), to the eye. OSK has been shown to slow or reverse features of aging, injury, and disease in laboratory models. Most important to this conversation is that OSK improves vision in mice with glaucoma, a finding that was first published by the laboratory of David Sinclair in Nature, 2020.
