AstronauTx has been awarded funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Parkinson’s UK to advance sleep‑based therapeutic approaches for Parkinson’s disease. The company said the grants will support work exploring how enhancing restorative sleep could influence disease progression.
The MJFF‑funded project will assess whether novel AstronauTx compounds that boost restorative sleep can reduce the accumulation of pathological proteins linked to Parkinson’s disease. The focus includes REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder, an early indicator of Parkinson’s, with the aim of generating data to support development of a potential disease‑modifying treatment for the prodromal stage.
Shalini Padmanabhan, Senior Vice President and Head of Translational Research at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, said: “Restorative sleep mechanisms are an emerging area of interest for therapeutic development in Parkinson’s disease, with the potential to offer new opportunities to intervene earlier in the disease process. The studies supported through this award will generate important preclinical evidence to evaluate this therapeutic approach and help determine its potential to advance toward clinical development.”
In parallel, Parkinson’s UK is funding a complementary project with UCL to investigate whether increasing slow‑wave sleep can enhance glymphatic flow, the brain’s waste‑clearance system. The study will evaluate whether a sleep‑enhancing compound that boosts slow‑wave activity can promote removal of alpha‑synuclein, a neurotoxic protein associated with Parkinson’s.
Jane Rhodes, Chief Executive Officer of AstronauTx, commented: “We are grateful for the support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s UK as we investigate the relationship between restorative sleep mechanisms and Parkinson’s disease and evaluate the therapeutic potential of these approaches.”
She added: “By targeting the mechanisms that regulate restorative sleep, we aim to unlock a completely new approach to treating Parkinson’s disease and other neurological diseases at their earliest stages, and we believe this grant‑funded work has the potential to directly support the development of new disease‑modifying approaches for patients.”
The programmes will contribute to AstronauTx’s broader efforts to develop therapeutics targeting sleep architecture. The company is preparing its lead programme for clinical development in 2027.
