Symberix, a startup developing drugs that target the human microbiome, just landed two SBIR grants from the NIH, totaling $500,000. The funding will fuel research into new drugs that selectively – and safely, it says – inhibit a bacterial enzyme that causes dose-limiting gastrointestinal pain stemming from pain and cancer medications.
“Our research has demonstrated that a disease-causing component of microbiome function can be pharmacologically controlled without harming the population of beneficial bacteria,” founder and CSO Matthew Redinbo said in a statement.
North Carolina-based Symberix has two small molecule programs underway that address chemotherapy-induced diarrhea caused by the drug irinotecan. They also are meant to reduce GI toxicity caused by NSAIDs.
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The company estimates that some $2 billion is spent each year to treat adverse drug reactions – largely that cause reactions in the GI tract.
Symberix aims to modulate the symbiotic bacteria we have living within us – because disruption of the microbiota is one cause of adverse drug reactions, researchers are finding.
“All of our lead chemical entities are non-lethal – they kill neither bacterial cells, nor human intestinal or other cells,” the company says. It aims to control, rather than eliminate, bacterial symbiotes.
