The NTDDS (Nerve Targeting Drug Delivery System) technology is Diamyd Medical's second platform. It currently consists of three products in preclinical and clinical phases: NP2 and NG2 for chronic pain and NC3 for the treatment of brain cancer. Research and development on NTDDS is performed by Diamyd Inc. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and the focus is on developing products and therapies for the relief of pain, such as diabetes pain. NTDDS is a gene therapy delivery system (also known as a vector) which can deliver drugs directly to nerve cells, providing a localized effect in targeted cells. Since the drug is delivered to the nervous system and does not enter the bloodstream, fewer side effects are expected compared with current systemic pain treatments such as morphine.
NTDDS is a gene therapy technology. The most common gene therapy technology in use today entails direct injection into the organ to be treated, such as the brain. NTDDS on the other hand, which carries a therapeutic gene such as Enkephalin for pain relief, is administered by intradermal (skin) injection. The vector is delivered into the peripheral nervous system to reside just outside the spinal cord, where the gene works by blocking pain signals to the brain. The same principle applies in the treatment of neurological cancer, also known as glioma, where the NTDDS technology can be used to deliver cell killing substances directly to the tumor, thus providing local treatment alone. The risk of side effects compared with other gene therapy technologies is additionally reduced because NTDDS neither integrates into the chromosomes of the host cells nor triggers an immune response.
POTENTIAL OF THE NTDDS PLATFORM
NTDDS technology can also be used to treat many other diseases of the peripheral nervous system, such as peripheral neuropathy, a serious diabetes related disorder that affects millions of people and spinal cord injury. Central nervous system diseases have also been studied with this platform including Parkinsons, Alzheimers, stroke, and cancer.
At present there is no effective treatment for peripheral neuropathy. Local treatment with NTDDS technology engineered to deliver nerve growth factors would be of tremendous clinical significance, protecting damaged nerve cells and stimulating nerve regrowth. One example of peripheral neuropathy is erectile dysfunction in diabetes patients and men who have had prostate surgery.
The NTDDS delivery system combined with GAD could also be effective in the treatment of a number of other illnesses. GAD is an enzyme that converts the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate to the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). Thus, GAD has the potential to be effective in disorders where nervous impulses must be inhibited, such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.
Diamyd Medical has previously licensed the rights to use GAD in the treatment of Parkinson's disease to the American biotechnology firm Neurologix Inc.