New Grants Support Research Into Sleep-Based Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease

Key takeaways:

• Funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s UK will support two distinct research efforts targeting sleep biology to treat Parkinson’s disease.
• One project focuses on REM sleep behavior disorder as an early indicator, exploring whether novel compounds can serve as a disease-modifying treatment.
• A parallel study will evaluate if increasing slow-wave sleep enhances the brain’s glymphatic clearance of neurotoxic proteins.

AstronauTx Ltd, a biotechnology company developing therapeutics for neurological disorders by improving sleep architecture, recently received funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and Parkinson’s UK to explore sleep-based approaches for Parkinson’s disease.

The MJFF-funded project will explore whether enhancing restorative sleep mechanisms using novel compounds developed by AstronauTx can reduce the accumulation of pathological proteins linked to Parkinson’s disease. Specifically, the company aims to generate data supporting the development of one of its compounds as a potential disease-modifying treatment for the prodromal stage of Parkinson’s disease. The research will focus on REM sleep behavior disorder, a recognized early indicator of the disease.

“Restorative sleep mechanisms are an emerging area of interest for therapeutic development in Parkinson’s disease, with the potential to offer new opportunities to intervene earlier in the disease process,” says Shalini Padmanabhan, PhD, senior vice president and head of translational research at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, in a release. “The studies supported through this award will generate important preclinical evidence to evaluate this therapeutic approach and help determine its potential to advance toward clinical development.”

In parallel, Parkinson’s UK is funding a complementary project with University College London (UCL), led by Ian Harrison and supported by AstronauTx. This study will investigate whether increasing slow-wave sleep can enhance the brain’s natural waste-clearance pathways. It will evaluate whether a novel sleep-enhancing compound that increases slow-wave activity and enhances glymphatic flow results in the removal of the neurotoxic protein alpha-synuclein from the brain in a Parkinson’s disease mouse model.

“We are grateful for the support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s UK as we investigate the relationship between restorative sleep mechanisms and Parkinson’s disease and evaluate the therapeutic potential of these approaches,” says Jane Rhodes, CEO of AstronauTx, in a release. “By targeting the mechanisms that regulate restorative sleep, we aim to unlock a completely new approach to treating Parkinson’s disease and other neurological diseases at their earliest stages, and we believe this grant-funded work has the potential to directly support the development of new disease-modifying approaches for patients.”

Together, these research programs will provide insights into the relationship between sleep biology and Parkinson’s disease. Alongside these grant-funded programs, AstronauTx is preparing its lead program for clinical development in 2027, further advancing its pipeline of therapies targeting sleep architecture as a treatment approach for Alzheimer’s disease and related neurological conditions.

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