Nurr1 Activator

Our mission at NurrOn Pharmaceuticals is to develop innovative, targeted Parkinson and other neurodegenerative therapies with the potential to improve survival and quality of life in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. 

While currently there are only symptomatic treatment options for patients with PD, there has been no successful therapies to slow or prevent the progression of the disease.

Nurr1 is the master regulator in dopaminergic neuron development and maintenance. Based on the unique dual role of Nurr1 for development and maintenance of dopaminergic neurons and their protection from inflammation-induced death, we believe that Nurr1 can be a molecular target for paradigm changing therapeutic development for PD.

We identified Nurr1 activators that enhanced the contrasting dual functions of Nurr1 by increasing transcriptional activation of dopaminergic-specific genes and further enhancing transrepression of neurotoxic proinflammatory gene expression in microglia. These Nurr1 activators significantly improved behavioral deficits in both 6-hydroxydopamine lesioned rat and MPTP-lesioned mouse models of PD without any detectable signs of dyskinesia-like behavior.

Building on a strong foundation in Parkinson research and discovery, we have assembled a diverse portfolio of novel neurodegenerative disease assets that includes novel investigational lead compounds for the investigational new drug (IND) enabling studies.