Symberix

Symberix is developing a compound that could eliminate the side effects of drugs without having an antibiotic effect on the microbiome.

Most importantly, all of their lead chemical entities are non-lethal – they kill neither bacterial cells, nor human intestinal or other cells. Thus, they have achieved what others have unsuccessfully attempted – to control, rather than eliminate, their bacterial symbiotes. In several models of drug-induced toxicity, their reagents show powerful effects, significantly reducing GI damage. Utilzing their core technology to they continue to identify additional, 'drugable' bacterial enzymes that not only reduce drug toxicity but modulate human disease. Their initial program focuses on alleviating the toxicity associated with chemotherapeutics essential for the treatment of cancer. Toxicity of these drug classes is caused by the reactivation of therapeutic metabolites in the GI by the resident bacteria. In fact, they have shown that a single enzyme, bacterial beta-glucuronidase, is responsible for this dose limiting toxicity. Their novel and proprietary lead candidates selectively and potently inhibit this bacterial enzyme, which is widely expressed in the intestinal symbiotic bacteria. Candidates are at least 10,000-fold more selective for this bacterial enzyme than the human orthologous enzyme. Their potency is lower nanomolar on-target with a clearly established mechanism of action. This program is currently in lead series selection, with the focus on moving a lead candidate into preclinical development and IND enabling studies. The program is, in-part, funded by the US National Cancer Institute.