Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetics After Multiple Doses of Orally Inhaled DNAzyme Solution for Nebulisation in Healthy Male Subjects

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory bronchial disorder with three distinct components: airway hyper-responsiveness (respiratory hypersensitivity), airway inflammation, and intermittent airway obstruction. One of the characteristics of the disease is an inflammatory reaction of the immune system caused by cytokine production. A substantial number of asthma patients do not satisfactorily respond to steroid therapy and consequently have an unmet medical need for novel targeted therapies with improved specificity, tolerability, and compliance. Novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases by targeting early disease-causing mechanisms are a promising approach for the treatment of asthma. The transcription factor GATA-3 plays a key role in mediating the asthmatic immune response and has been shown to be necessary and sufficient for the production of cytokines interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, and IL-13. The active principle hgd40 of the investigational medicinal product SB010 belongs to a new class of antisense oligonucleotide therapeutics, the 10-23 DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)zymes (antisense oligonucleotide). DNAzymes are catalytically active nucleic acids that cleave complementary RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules. By cleaving GATA-3 mRNA, hgd40 reduces specific cytokine production and thereby reduces key features of allergic airway inflammation. DNAzymes are generated completely by chemical synthesis and can be produced under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) controlled conditions. The DNAzymes are not biological drugs, i.e. they are not generated by use of any living organism including cell culture or bacteria. The molecules are highly water-soluble and will be applied as solution directly in their synthesized form. The current study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of increasing multiple doses of inhaled SB010 in healthy male subjects.