Protemix researchers have identified altered metabolism of human amylin as a major cause of the islet β-cell damage and loss that occurs in Type 2 diabetes. Human amylin is the major protein found in islet amyloid, which occurs in most patients with Type 2 diabetes; this protein forms soluble cytotoxic aggregates that can cause β-cell death.

Protemix has identified a class of small, orally active molecules that, in both in vitro and in vivo studies, suppress human amylin’s ability to form these cytotoxic aggregates and protect β-cells from aggregate-amyloid mediated death.

The company has chosen an orally active lead compound, PX811016, which can suppress disease progression in a pre-clinical model of Type 2 diabetes and is well tolerated for chronic therapy. Protemix expects PX811016 to serve as the basis for development of a new class of anti-diabetic medications that can arrest and reverse islet β-cell failure in Type 2 diabetes by suppressing the cytotoxicity of human amylin.