Selonterra publishes novel proprietary mechanism for APOE4 in Alzheimer’s disease

Therapies targeted at this novel mechanism have the potential for disease-modification because they will address the genetic root cause of AD.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects tens of millions of people worldwide. The most important genetic factor associated with late onset AD is APOE4, a DNA variant of the apolipoprotein E gene. Selonterra discovered that APOE4 is part of a short sequence repeat typically observed in DNA regulatory regions (transcriptional enhancers). The single nucleotide change in the APOE4 DNA generates a de novo binding motif for the transcription factor NRF1, a protein known to regulate key metabolic and mitochondrial genes. This mechanism allows for the integration of environmental factors known to influence AD, offers a new path towards understanding the tissue-specific progression of AD neurodegeneration and presents opportunities to discover novel AD therapies.

“The importance of APOE4 for AD has been recognized for decades but this has not translated to approved therapies,” said Anne Urfer-Buchwalder, Co-Founder and CSO of Selonterra. “In contrast to an involvement of the APOE4 protein in AD, our discovery suggests that it is the DNA sequence of the APOE4 variant itself that controls the expression of genes located in close vicinity to the APOE gene. The APOE4/NRF1-mediated expression of these genes may lead to the known hallmarks of AD.”

“AD is one of the defining health challenges of our time” said Roman Urfer, Co-Founder and CEO of Selonterra. “Therapies targeted at this novel mechanism have the potential for disease-modification because they will address the genetic root cause of AD. We hope that our discovery will serve as a stimulus for further research towards an effective treatment of this disease.”

Selonterra intends to expand on these findings with an aggressive research and development effort to identify lead compounds acting on unexploited targets linked to this novel APOE4 mechanism.