Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced Oct. 26th that the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) had agreed to provide financial support to help accelerate development of SB-509, a ZFP Therapeutic for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy.

"This partnership provides an opportunity to accelerate the progress of a potential treatment for a significant unmet medical need in diabetes," said Dr. Richard A. Insel, Executive Vice President for Research at JDRF.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy starts with numbness, tingling sensations and pain particularly in the toes or feet. This gradually evolves to loss of sensation and motor function. Ulcers and sores may appear on numb areas of the foot because injury goes unnoticed. These areas of trauma frequently become infected and this infection may necessitate amputation.

"Currently, more than fifty percent of patients with diabetes for ten years or longer will experience diabetic neuropathy and the treatments currently available are drugs that only address neuropathy-associated pain," Insel said.

When SB-509 is injected into a patient's leg, the drug enters the muscle and nerve cells around the injection site and causes these cells to make a protein. This protein causes cells to increase production of another protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which may improve the structure and function of nerves.

In addition, there are changes in the levels of 28 additional proteins in your cells. These proteins function to promote the growth of cells, are structures in cells, help synthesize products, and affect immune cells, and some have unknown functions. This increase in a patient's own VEGF proteins may protect and repair the damaged nerves caused by diabetic neuropathy.

"We believe that SB-509 represents a new therapeutic approach for diabetic neuropathy, designed to directly protect and restore nerve function, in contrast to the current standard of care designed to address only the pain associated with this condition," said Edward Lanphier, Sangamo's President and CEO.

JDRF said it would provide up to $3 million toward the Phase 2 clinical trial based upon the achievement of certain milestones.