Cyclophilin Inhibitors for Chronic Pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis is a severely painful inflammation of the pancreas that frequently requires admission to hospital and prevents normal life. Currently there is no drug treatment that affects the course of chronic pancreatitis and patients are typically treated only to alleviate their pain. As the disease progresses the pancreas undergoes degradation, along with fibrosis, which can lead to malnutrition, and also diabetes. Cypralis has identified compounds that can prevent degradation of pancreatic tissue and, separately, compounds which can inhibit signs of fibrosis. The current project is designed to test compounds to find examples that possess both activities. These compounds will be tested for activity in models of chronic pancreatitis. This project will set the stage for an advanced drug discovery project to find a drug that can prevent this serious disease from progressing further.