Folic Acid Deficiency

Every Cure will leverage Google Cloud's infrastructure and AI technologies, including Gemini 2.0, to accelerate discoveries and improve patient outcomes PHILADELPHIA and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Every Cure, a leading nonprofit dedicated to identifying and validating new uses for existing drugs, today announced an expanded collaboration with Google Cloud to advance AI-driven drug repurposing. By leveraging Google Cloud's AI tools, including Gemini 2.0 large language models to power Every Cure's MATRIX platform, Every Cure aims to accelerate the discovery, validation, and global dissemination of life-saving treatments for diseases lacking effective therapies. More than 300 million people globally suffer from diseases without available treatments, while many face barriers to accessing existing therapies. Drug repurposing utilizes existing medicines, which are often affordable, widely accessible generics with established safety profiles and extensive data, to address this unmet need. By combining Every Cure's mission-driven expertise with Google Cloud's advanced AI capabilities, the collaboration seeks to transform healthcare delivery and patient outcomes worldwide. Every Cure researchers use Google Cloud's infrastructure to stay at the cutting edge of drug repurposing, an approach that can bypass the prolonged timelines and high costs associated with traditional drug development. The Every Cure Leadership Team has already advanced over a dozen repurposed treatments for diseases they weren't initially intended for, including Castleman disease, DADA2 syndrome, POEMS syndrome, and angiosarcoma. By leveraging iterative learning cycles, Every Cure will not only advance computational biology but also deliver immediate benefits to patients with Google Cloud. "We are so excited about the potential for this collaboration with Google Cloud to rapidly scale the impact that Every Cure can make on patients' lives. We created Every Cure to treat patients with existing drugs as quickly as possible and this collaboration supercharges our ability to do this," said Every Cure Co-Founder & President David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc. This collaboration focuses on three key use cases: Improving accuracy of AI-driven drug repurposing predictions Every Cure's MATRIX platform will use Google Cloud's AI technology, including Gemini 2.0, to analyze complex biomedical knowledge and integrate diverse data sources, including omics datasets, clinical data, real-world evidence and biomedical knowledge graphs. This synergy will enhance prediction accuracy, identifying overlooked therapeutic opportunities, and accelerating hypothesis generation. Validating predictions through accelerated preclinical testing and optimized clinical trials By leveraging Gemini 2.0-driven trial design and predictive analytics, Every Cure will streamline in vitro and in vivo preclinical testing and clinical trial workflows to confirm efficacy and safety of repurposed drugs. Every Cure will also use Google Cloud's AI-powered tools to select optimal trial designs, reducing resource use and ensuring more efficient evaluation of treatments. Ensuring global adoption of validated treatments to save lives With the help of Google Cloud's scale and infrastructure, Every Cure will ensure that validated repurposed drugs are rapidly adopted into clinical practice, particularly in underserved regions. A few examples of Google Cloud and Workspace tools that are used as part of this collaboration are Google Kubernetes Engine (including GPUs), Ray on VertexAI, BigQuery and Cloud Storage to facilitate the secure dissemination of clinical guidelines. Meanwhile Data Studio provides visual dashboards for global stakeholders. "Every Cure is doing incredible work with the power of cloud and AI technologies by repurposing medicine to save lives," said Scott Penberthy, Senior Director of Applied AI, Office of the CTO, Google Cloud. "We're delighted customers are tapping into the power of GPUs, TPUs, search and AI models that have been purpose built for Google systems, now available on Google Cloud. We are proud to collaborate with them on this journey." This collaboration builds on a successful collaboration between Every Cure and Google Cloud. Google Cloud has supported Every Cure with infrastructure and services to manage biomedical datasets and execute complex computations. With the help of Gemini 2.0's advanced capabilities, Every Cure aims to transform healthcare by accelerating the pace of innovation while ensuring that breakthroughs reach patients worldwide. Every Cure has already identified a number of promising drug repurposing opportunities through its AI-powered pipeline for diseases with major unmet need that are undergoing further investigation, including a neurodevelopmental disorder involving folate receptor auto-antibodies which can be helped with a generic drug that repletes the folate deficiency and can address neurodevelopmental challenges in these patients. About Every Cure Every Cure is a nonprofit biotech organization committed to unlocking the potential of existing medicines to treat as many diseases as possible. By harnessing AI-driven platforms, rigorous preclinical and clinical testing, and global dissemination strategies, Every Cure accelerates the delivery of life-saving treatments to patients worldwide. Every Cure has been profiled on Good Morning America, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal and selected as both an Audacious Project grantee from TED and a Founder's Prize recipient from Elevate Prize Foundation. Learn more at . Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Every Cure WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

NORTH READING, Mass.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--Aphios Corporation announced today that it has been granted Japanese Patent No. 7,520,838 for novel compositions to treat folic acid deficiency and morning sickness. The dosage forms have an effective amount of a folic acid, gingerols and shogaols to suppress nausea, relieve gastric distress and promote hematopoiesis. Pregnancy related nausea and vomiting (PRNV) is the most common medical condition during pregnancy. PRNV affects up to 70% of women during their first trimester, and many in the second and third trimester. The most serious form of PRNV is called Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) that is reported in up to 10% of pregnant women. PRNV and HG affects women's quality of life and exerts a large economic impact on patients, caregivers and society. There are only a few medications approved by the FDA to treat and manage PRNV and HG. Folic acid deficiency can also have a significant impact on the health and welfare of newborns, parents, caregivers and society. Folic acid is necessary and critical to fetal development during pregnancy since it promotes DNA synthesis and cell division, affecting hematopoietic cells. In addition to folic acid, a number of medications that include folic acid have been used in the past to treat this deficiency during pregnancy. These supplements are also associated with nausea and upset stomach. There is thus a need to develop improved formulations which do not cause gastric distress and nausea. According to Dr. Trevor P. Castor, inventor of the patent, “These novel compositions impact high unmet needs to manage pregnancy related nausea and vomiting without synthetic drugs, while improving the health of the fetus and mother with folic acid supplements, managing any resulting gastric distress and improving hemostasis that is accomplished by both gingerols/shogaols and folic acid supplements.” About Aphios Corporation: Aphios is an emerging growth, green biotechnology company using earth-friendly supercritical fluids and nanotechnologies to develop enabling technology platforms. Based on these platforms and inspired by nature, we are developing enhanced therapeutics to maintain health, improve quality-of-life and treat chronic diseases including certain cancers and Zindol ® for chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting (CINV), infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, influenza and COVID-19, and CNS disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and opioid addiction in an environmentally sustainable manner.

A team of international researchers has demonstrated, for the first time in a field study, that using folic acid-fortified iodized table salt can prevent multiple severe birth defects. A team of international researchers -- including experts from the University of Central Florida and Emory University -- has demonstrated, for the first time in a field study, that using folic acid-fortified iodized table salt can prevent multiple severe birth defects. The importance of women having enough folic acid in their bodies before and during pregnancy to prevent permanent and life-threatening birth defects, such as spina bifida and anencephaly, has been known for decades. The World Health Organization recommends that all women should take supplement pills with 400 micrograms of folic acid daily, from the moment they begin attempting to conceive through the first three months of pregnancy. Mandatory staple food fortification with folic acid is a cost-effective, safe, and an equitable way to address the issue. In May 2023, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution promoting food fortification with folic acid to accelerate the slow pace of prevention of spina bifida and other birth defects associated with low maternal folate levels at the time of early pregnancy. Yet approximately 260,000 births worldwide -- about 20 per every 10,000 births -- are still affected by spina bifida and anencephaly, contributing to a high number of stillbirths, elective pregnancy terminations, and deaths of infants and young children. The problem While folic acid has been added through mandatory staple grain food fortification in about 65 countries, including the United States, more than 100 countries have yet to implement fortification due to challenges that include limited capacity for large-scale fortification of staple grains in these regions or lack of political will. A solution A new study published Friday by JAMA Network Open showed that a solution is not only possible, many people already have it on their kitchen tables. The clinical trial showed that mixing folic acid to commercially available iodized table salt, based on the existing average daily consumption of salt, increased serum folate levels among participants to levels needed for prevention of spina bifida and anencephaly. The increase was significant, a 3.7-fold improvement before and after a four-month period of using the study salt with iodine and folic acid. "We proved that folic acid can get into the blood through salt. Hopefully countries that have not already implemented fortification programs can now look at their infrastructures and realize that salt fortification is cheap and it's really easy to add in the amount of folic acid needed to save lives," says Jogi Pattisapu, MD, the study's lead author and a neurosurgeon from UCF's College of Medicine. "It might just turn the salt a little yellow, but the participants did not mind and we know it works. What we need now is action." Why it matters Pattisapu credits the study's successful outcome to the collaborative nature of the research team, specifically the efforts and expertise of researchers from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and the colleagues from multiple institutions in India, who co-led the study and recruited and monitored the 83 non-pregnant women -- who were between the ages of 18-45, from four different villages in southern India -- who consumed the folic acid-fortified salt as part of their regular diet during a four-month period in 2022. India has a high prevalence of spina bifida and anencephaly. "Work was done there, by the Indian team, for their cause," Pattisapu says. "That was very important, and it is a powerful message." Even though food fortification is mandatory in the United States, the researchers say the impact of this new study could be felt globally in countries with successful salt iodization programs. "This is a global goodwill involving the health of mothers and babies. We are making sure we apply the knowledge we have," says Vijaya Kancherla, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Rollins. "These are preventable birth defects and once it happens, you cannot cure it. Surgeries and clinical care are expensive and largely not available in low- and middle-income countries. Due to that, most babies with spina bifida die globally. So, it is a human rights issue that everyone should be worried about and should strive to find alternate solutions that prevent these conditions from occurring in the first place, no matter where one is born. We show that salt has the potential to close the prevention gap now." The researchers also made it clear the study does not promote salt intake, but rather adding the necessary amount of folic acid to the table salt that residents of these regions are already consuming. If the average daily salt consumption is reduced in these regions, the concentration of folic acid would simply be increased, to meet the need. This approach is already used in grain fortification program. The researchers said at least 50 percent of the current global spina bifida cases would be prevented if the major, already existing iodized salt programs took the simple step of adding folic acid. "We now know folic acid fortification of iodized salt can prevent folate deficiency that causes spina bifida," says Godfrey Oakley Jr., MD, director of the Center for Spina Bifida Prevention at Rollins. "The stage is now set for a rapid acceleration of prevention of these birth defects in many countries"