Mitosir

Sarcopenia is a geriatric syndrome that causes a decline in muscle mass. Living with sarcopenia significantly affects quality of life and frequently leads to falls and fractures, but especially affects mobility. This loss of mobility leads to an increased risk of metabolic, cardiovascular and cancer pathologies. With the ageing of the population, sarcopenia has become a major public health problem. It is estimated that between a quarter and a half of the population aged 65 or over currently suffer from it. In 2019, the cost of hospitalisation alone for patients in this age bracket was over $19 billion, not to mention the cost of associated treatments, which are currently only palliative, as no targeted treatment for this pathology is currently available.

In partnership with ULiège, Revatis has demonstrated that it is possible to obtain muscle-derived stem cells (mdMSCs), in quality and quantity, from elderly human and equine individuals. Revatis has already obtained mdMSCs from horses with pathological conditions similar to human sarcopenia. Moreover, these mdMSCs can be easily transfected, secrete large quantities of extracellular vesicles and are capable of transferring mitochondria.

Genflow Biosciences is interested in age-related diseases, and in particular in a variant of the gene encoding sirtuin 6 (SIRT6c), identified only in a population of centenarians. This SIRT6 gene is involved in regulating mitochondrial function, a function impaired in sarcopenia.

The idea was therefore to combine these data to develop an innovative drug therapy using modified mdMCSs expressing the SIRT6c variant to improve the function of deficient muscle cells. Cells will be transfected with the gene encoding SIRT6c, potentially in combination with other sirtuin family genes. This drug will target mitochondrial dysfunction, which plays a major role in the pathophysiology of sarcopenia.