Background
Human Red Blood Cells (RBC) which get saturated with oxygen in the lungs, transport oxygen throughout the body but can only release 25% of the oxygen they have bound. This is sufficient for the functioning of a normal organism but, when blood vessels narrow or when tissues and organs become hypoxic (oxygen deficient) problems arise. Hypoxia is a condition which characterizes many pathological conditions, in particular cancer, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.
Hemoglobin, the red pigment in the red blood cells, gets completely saturated with oxygen at a partial pressure of 100mmHg, the oxygen pressure in the lungs. In humans, hemoglobin contains an allosteric effector bisphosphoglycerate (BPG), which reduces the affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen, and allows it to release oxygen in tissues and organs which are under partial pressures of oxygen less than 100mmHg. However, the fact that hemoglobin can only release 25% of the total amount of oxygen bound makes it impossible to supply the hypoxic tissues and organs the amount of oxygen needed for them to function normally.
NormOxys has identified and developed a new class of allosteric effectors of hemoglobin, called oxyrens (oxygen release enhancers), more powerful allosteric effectors which permit hemoglobin to release much more than the "normal" 25% of their bound oxygen. Because of this increase in oxygen delivery capacity, oxygenation of hypoxic tissues and organs is brought to normal levels. NormOxys' allosteric effector is transported into the red blood cell via a specific transporter, binds irreversibly to hemoglobin, and once in the RBC it remains there for the life time of the RBC (~120 days in humans).
NormOxys has discovered a number of oxyrens. Our lead compound is called OXY111A, and is currently in Phase I human clinical studies.
The synthesis and characterization of these molecules are being conducted in our research laboratories in Strasbourg, France, under the direction of Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Laureate in chemistry and co-founder of NormOxys. The definition of the therapeutic applications and the design and performance of experiments to demonstrate the value of oxyrens are conducted under the direction of Prof. Claude Nicolau, co-founder of NormOxys, in collaboration with distinguished cardiologists, oncologists and cell biologists in the USA and in Europe. NormOxys has developed and proved in animal experiments a novel concept of cancer therapy based upon the removal of hypoxia in growing tumors.