Background

Low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem that affects 60-80% of the population of developed countries at some stage in their lives. Patients develop chronic back pain followed by long-term disability leading to morbidity, with severe socio-economic impacts on society. The majority of cases of LBP are caused by intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration and most patients remain asymptomatic with some experiencing discogenic pain. Current therapy for IVD degeneration focuses on spinal fusion devices such as the Infuse® Bone Graft/LT-Cage® Lumbar Tapered Fusion Device (Medtronic), AccuLIF® Expandable Lumbar Interbody Fusion Technology (Stryker), Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF) (DePuy), XLIF® (NuVasive), Mobi-C® cervical disc replacement device (Zimmer Biomet Holdings/LDR), CALIBER® (Globus Medical, Inc.), ALPHATEC SOLUS® (Alphatec Holdings), SKYHAWK® Lateral Interbody Fusion System (Orthofix International) which aim to alleviate pain through the removal of a damaged or diseased disc through an anterior or lateral approach. These procedures involve the complete removal of the intervertebral disc and the implantation of an interbody fusion device to restore intervertebral height and fuse the affected vertebral bodies. Spinal fusion devices involve extensive bone work, which leads to more back pain and longer recovery times.

Critically these technologies are not regenerative in nature resulting in the need for repeated surgery and do not address the underlying disease pathology.

Technology Overview

The present technology consists of a high molecular weight hyaluronan (HA) hydrogel implant which is capable of arresting, and even reversing, progressive disc degeneration in a needle puncture pre‑clinical model. The high molecular weight HA hydrogel modulates the proteome signature of cells in both the nucleus polposus (NP) and annulus fibrosus (AF) in the same model of IVD degeneration to promote disc regeneration by the formation of functional extracellular matrix (ECM). The hydrogel implant can also inhibit pain sensitization in peripheral regions of the disc and suppress pain processes in a rat tail model of IVD by attenuation of hyperalgesia, nociception, hyperinnervation and/or hypoalgesia.

Implantation of hyaluronic acid hydrogel prevents the pain phenotype in a rat model of intervertebral disc injury. Mohd Isa IL, Abbah SA, Kilcoyne M, Sakai D, Dockery P, Finn DP, Pandit A. Sci Adv. 2018 Apr 4;4(4):eaaq0597. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaq0597. eCollection 2018 Apr.

Benefits

Addresses underlying causes of discogenic pain
Straightforward formulation
Injectable or implantable
Significant pre‑clinical data
Patent protected

Applications

Treatment of discogenic pain

Opportunity

Licensing

Treatment for Discogenic Pain

Patents

IP Status

Seeking