ZyVersa Therapeutics Sponsors American Diabetes Association Thought Leadership Video on Podocyte Lipotoxicity, a Cause of Diabetic Kidney Disease and Its Progression

Video features researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine:

• Dr. Alessia Fornoni, Katz Professor of Medicine, Chief, Katz Family Division of Nephrology & Hypertension & Director of Peggy & Harold Katz Drug Discovery Center
• Dr. Sandra Merscher, Research Associate Professor, Katz Family Division of Nephrology & Hypertension

Dr. Fornoni's and Merscher's in vitro and in vivo preclinical research shows:

• Cholesterol accumulation occurs in kidney disease, damaging the filtration system, eventually leading to kidney failure
• Mediating removal of kidney cholesterol with agents such as 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin rescues the kidneys from damage and slows disease progression

WESTON, Fla., June 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ZyVersa Therapeutics, Inc. (ZyVersa), a clinical stage specialty biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class drugs for treatment of renal and inflammatory diseases, is pleased to announce sponsorship of an American Diabetes Association Thought Leadership Video on Podocyte Lipotoxicity, a Cause of Diabetic Kidney Disease and Its Progression. The video features researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dr. Alessia Fornoni (Katz Professor of Medicine, Chief, Katz Family Division of Nephrology & Hypertension & Director of Peggy & Harold Katz Drug Discovery Center) and Dr. Sandra Merscher (Research Associate Professor, Katz Family Division of Nephrology & Hypertension).

The video will be shown at The American Diabetes Association's 82nd Scientific Sessions, June 3-7, 2022, as part of their conference television channel (ADA TV). The video will be displayed on monitors throughout the convention center, at many conference hotels, on ADA shuttle buses, and online on the ADA TV 2022 YouTube site during and for 12 months post-conference.

"Science is beautiful, because it reveals new knowledge as you go," indicated Dr. Fornoni in the video. "We observed that kidney cells exposed to sera from patients with diabetic kidney disease accumulate lipids, whereas kidney cells exposed to sera from diabetic patients without kidney disease did not. This was a surprise because we never knew that these cells could metabolize lipids. This was the beginning of a long journey that led to discovery that accumulation of fat contributes to kidney disease progression in the setting of diabetes."

"Even more interesting," said Dr. Merscher in the video, "if we use a molecule called cyclodextrin (added to kidney cells exposed to sera from patients with diabetic kidney disease), we were able to show that we could prevent the cytoskeletal rearrangement, apoptosis, and more importantly cholesterol accumulation in these cells. We subsequently injected mice (representative of diabetic kidney disease) subcutaneously with 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin for 5 months. What we were able to see, just as beautiful as in our in vitro experiment, 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin was able to prevent the progression of kidney disease in these mice".

"Dr. Fornoni and her team have conducted innovative and important research," stated Stephen Glover, Co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of ZyVersa Therapeutics. "There is a significant unmet need for therapies that prevent progression to kidney failure and the need for dialysis and kidney transplant. Over 550,000 Americans are on dialysis, around 20,000 kidney transplants are performed annually in the U.S., and there are almost 100,000 Americans on the kidney transplant waiting list. That is why we licensed the patents resulting from Dr. Fornoni's research. We aspire to be one of the first to bring new kidney disease therapies to market with the goal of reducing these statistics.

The sponsored ADA Thought Leadership Video can be viewed by Clicking Here.

ZyVersa is a clinical stage specialty biopharmaceutical company leveraging advanced, proprietary technologies to develop first-in-class drugs. Our focus is on patients with renal or inflammatory diseases who have significant unmet medical needs. Our development pipeline includes phase 2a-ready VAR 200, a cholesterol efflux mediator for treatment of a rare kidney disease, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). VAR 200 has potential to treat other kidney diseases, such as Alport Syndrome and Diabetic Kidney Disease. Our pipeline also includes a novel inflammasome ASC inhibitor with potential to treat multiple CNS and other inflammatory diseases. For more information, please visit www.zyversa.com.

SOURCE ZyVersa Therapeutics, Inc.