Retrotope
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Founded | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Legal status | Clinical stage pharmaceutical company |
| Headquarters | Los Altos, CA, United States |
| Services | Drug development |
| Anil Kumar | |
| Rick Winningham | |
| Mikhail Shchepinov[1] | |
| Website | www |
Retrotope, Inc. is a drug development company advancing the idea that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) drugs fortified with heavy isotopes (reinforced lipids) protect living cells by making bonds within the delicate molecules inside and around cells harder to break. This makes the cells less prone to damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS), one of the principal causes of ageing and age-associated diseases.[2] Founded in 2006 by entrepreneurs and scientists with seed funding from private investors, Retrotope is developing a non-antioxidant approach to preventing lipid peroxidation, a detrimental factor in mitochondrial, neuronal, and retinal diseases.[3] The company employs the virtual business model[4] and works in scientific collaboration with more than 80 research groups in universities worldwide.[5]
Retrotope's drug platform, deuterium-stabilized polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), prevents lipid peroxidation damage from propagating, rapidly stopping the toxic chain reaction at its source. Because the fatty acids in mitochondrial and cellular membranes turn over rapidly, the dietary substitution of stabilized fatty acids creates cells fortified against damage due to kinetic isotope effect. 11,11-D2-ethyl linoleate suppresses lipid peroxidation even at relatively low levels of incorporation into membranes.[6] In 2010 Retrotope found that it more than 150 times increases the resistance of the yeast to oxidative stress,[7][8] later it was shown to be effective in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease.[9] A June 2018 study found that a diet of D-PUFA was shown to significantly decrease F2-isoprostanes (a cerebrospinal fluid found in elevated amounts in Huntington's disease) when fed to one-month old mice over the course of five months.[10] These findings caused discussion in popular science press about the use of deuterated nutrients against ageing,[11] but the most promising direction of further development was toward rare neurodegenerative diseases in which oxidative damage plays a part.[12]