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        Neurological Disease


        Focused on Diagnostic Imaging

        Rio Pharmaceuticals, a Delaware company, aims to transform the diagnosis of neurological diseases through the development of a new PET imaging tool that can detect pathological changes in the human brain. We believe that the specific pattern of changes detected by our reagent will serve as a kind of fingerprint that should provide clinicians with an unambiguous diagnosis.

        What is PET?

        PET is a way to obtain quantitative neurochemical data from a living being. PET uses radioactive molecules with a high affinity for a specific protein in the body. A small amount of the compound is injected into the body, and then, radioactive decay events are recorded with a special camera. The location of the decay event is then mapped onto the tissue location. In this way, the density of the target protein at a given anatomic location can be inferred by the events recorded by the camera.


        Brain Research Laboratory

         Glutamate

        Our Lead Development Candidate: RP-115

        EAAT2 is an abundant neurotransmitter transporter responsible for clearing glutamate, the most common neurotransmitter in the CNS, from synapses. This transporter is chiefly found on astrocytes, non-neuronal cells that play a major role in the regulation of synaptic function. When EAAT2 is shut down, glutamate signaling is amplified, so much so that signaling at neuronal glutamate receptors can actually damage or kill the receptive neuron.

        In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), for example, downregulation of EAAT2 is associated with the onset of motor neuron pathology. In a very exciting recent study, our tracer RP-115 was able to quantify this decline in transgenic rats engineered to get a familial form of ALS.

        Other published data suggest that EAAT2 downregulation is a biomarker for other disorders such as cognitive impairment due to stroke, Parkinson’s (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and neuropathic pain. Surprisingly, accurate diagnosis – particularly early diagnosis – is quite difficult.


        Rio is currently involved in PET imaging studies in Gulf War Illness, TBI, and AD. In particular, we recently obtained significant funding from the Alzheimer's Disease Discovery Foundation to support a clinical trial in Alzheimer's patients at the University of California San Francisco. We are very excited at the huge opportunity this presents to neurologists who may soon have a sophisticated new imaging tool for the diagnosis of a variety of neurological diseases. When one considers the market value of other commercial PET ligands, such as PIB for amyloid plaque in AD or FDG for malignancies, we at Rio have tremendous confidence in this technology.

        Diagnose various neurological diseases

        through the development of a PET imaging tool.

        Investment Opportunity

        The clinical PET market is large. About 2 million scans were performed in the USA in 2018 at an average cost of $5-7K, grossing $10-14 billion from about 2,700 PET scan facilities. The vast majority of such scans are for cancer (Fluorodeoxyglucose or FDG). The market for neurological PET scanning is relatively small, and the agents in use are disease-specific. We believe that RP-115 has the capacity to diagnose a broad array of neurological diseases, just as FDG is applicable to all types of cancers. Accordingly, we think RP-115 could be as widely used as a differential diagnostic in neurology as FDG is in cancer. Given the size of the FDG market and the growth in the incidence of neurological diseases, RP-115 has huge potential as a commercial PET ligand. An important feature of the clinical development of PET ligands is its relatively rapid progression through clinical trials and low costs.

        Scientific Research

        Discover Our PET Imaging Technology

        At Rio Pharmaceuticals, our mission is to uncover the mysteries of the central nervous system. We have spent years and years of exhaustive study, research, and experimentation to create a groundbreaking system that will help the diagnosis of neurological diseases. For more information, please contact us.

        Rio Pharmaceuticals

        Email: info@riopharmaceuticals.com

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