GB Sciences used PhAROS™, their novel AI-accelerated drug discovery platform, to identify and pre-validate optimized therapeutic mixtures for the treatment of anxiety, depression, and pain from mixtures of compounds identified within Kava and other plants from within the Piper family.
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2021 / GB Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB:GBLX) announced the completion of a data science study identifying proprietary therapeutic mixtures from within the Piper plant family. Piper plants are a family of pepper plants used around the world in traditional medicines, and GB was specifically focused on these plants' potential as sources of new therapeutic mixtures. The team at GB Sciences used a combination of conventional methodologies and their PhAROS™ drug discovery platform to identify and pre-validate these potential therapeutic mixtures designed to treat anxiety, depression, and pain. GB Sciences intends to advance these potential drug formulations into animal testing next quarter.
'We want to build a better mousetrap,' explained Dr. Andrea Small Howard, President, CSO, and Director of GB Sciences. 'For example, Kava, or Piper methysticum, the most recognized member of the Piper family, is used widely for anxiety as a nutraceutical but faces regulatory, supply chain, and side effect limitations. Other Piper species, which are less well-recognized, are also used in traditional medicine for anxiety and pain, and so we asked our AI-based drug discovery platform to identify alternatives to Kava and to aggregate knowledge across cultures as to the key efficacious components that work to treat anxiety, pain, and depression. This means we can then design novel, safe, effective mixtures for entry into the GB drug discovery pipeline and move away from patients relying on whole plant extracts.'
PhAROS™ (Phytomedicine Analytics for Research Optimization at Scale) is GB Sciences' proprietary drug discovery platform that uses AI technology to identify and predict the efficacy of combinations of novel active ingredients from plants. The PhAROS™ platform defines novel therapeutic mixtures that retain the efficacy of whole plant therapies, and it predicts both efficacy and potential side effects. This drug discovery project is just one of many that would not have been possible without the novel insights provided by the PhAROS™ platform.
Dr. Small-Howard shared, 'We are thrilled with the results obtained from the PhAROS™ platform so far, and we are equally optimistic about expanding its potential uses through new research collaborations and development partnerships.'
'To complete this data science study, we assembled the collected contemporary and historical traditional medicine-based knowledge of 5 traditional medicine systems spanning 3 continents and almost 20M sq. miles of biogeography into one dataset, and Piper species other than Piper methysticum emerged as consistent solutions to medical needs in anxiety, depression, and pain. Even more interestingly, many of the chemical components in these anxiety medicines were not the same as the proposed active ingredients in Kava, meaning that there are alternative therapeutic strategies that we can blend to potentially improve effectiveness and decrease side effects.' Dr. Helen Turner, research partner with GB Sciences and Professor of Biology at Chaminade University in Honolulu, continued to explain that by comparing the underlying chemical construction of medicines in different geographic regions, the GB Sciences team was able to hone in on the essential therapeutic components, then reassemble them into new candidate therapeutic mixtures that are streamlined compared to the original plant-based medicines while retaining much of the efficacy of whole plant medicines. 'Now we are wondering if this will also hold for other traditional therapeutic uses of pepper plants, as anti-inflammatories, anti-microbials, anti-parasitics, anti-diabetics, anti-cancer agents, and to treat neurodegenerative diseases.'
GB Sciences has now filed additional US patent applications for new therapeutic mixtures identified by the PhAROS™ platform, one of which covers these Piper-based therapeutic mixtures for use in treating anxiety, depression, and pain. In addition to these new patent applications, GB Sciences' intellectual property portfolio contains 5 issued US patents and 3 issued international patents, as well as, 16 U.S. and 35 International patent-pending applications for both a new PhAROS™ platform and for plant-inspired therapeutic mixtures for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, pain, cytokine release syndrome, mast cell activation syndrome, heart disease, and a variety of other medical conditions. GB Sciences' drug development pipeline currently contains four preclinical stage programs, and the company's lead Parkinson's disease therapeutic program is being prepared for a First-in-Man clinical trial, as soon as possible.
About GB Sciences, Inc. and GBS Global Biopharma, Inc.
GB Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: GBLX), through their Canadian entity, GBS Global Biopharma, Inc., is a plant-based research and biopharmaceutical drug development company whose goal is to create patented formulations of plant-inspired, optimized therapeutic mixtures (OTM) that target a variety of medical conditions. The 'plant-inspired' active ingredients in our OTM are synthetic homologues identical to the original plant compounds but produced under current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). GB Sciences' novel drug discovery platform has yielded five issued U.S. and three issued international patents, as well as 16 US and 35 international patent-pending applications. In our drug development pipeline, we have four preclinical stage programs, and our lead Parkinson's disease therapeutic program is being prepared for a First-in-Man clinical trial. In addition to Parkinson's disease, GB Sciences is developing therapeutics for neuropathic pain, cytokine release syndrome (CRS), Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), and heart failure. GB Sciences' productive research and development network includes distinguished universities, hospitals, and Contract Research Organizations. https://gbsciences.com
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Contact Information
GB Sciences, Inc.,
3550 West Teco Avenue,
Las Vegas, NV 89118
1-866-721-0297
info@gbsciences.com
Media Contact
Alexis Quintal
alexis@newsire.com
SOURCE: GB Sciences Inc.
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