CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — XORTX Therapeutics Inc. (“XORTX” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: XRTX | TSXV: XRTX | Frankfurt: ANU), a late-stage clinical pharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies to treat progressive kidney disease, is pleased to announce a presentation by Dr. Allen Davidoff at the Rare and Genetic Kidney Disease Summit, in Boston, Massachusetts at 10:30 am ET, Thursday December 12, 2024. The presentation entitled “Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease – Genetic and Environmental Factors → Evidence for Aberrant Purine Metabolism as a Second Hit Determining Disease Progression.”

The presentation highlights XORTX recent pioneering discoveries in the field of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (“ADPKD”), and recent peer-reviewed, independent, published research reports identifying genetic factors that influence over-expression of xanthine oxidase (“XO”) and play a role in several diseases, including kidney disease. These ground-breaking findings suggest that genetic factors that influence aberrant purine metabolism may influence the rate of progression of ADPKD.

Dr. Allen Davidoff, CEO of XORTX, stated, “The recent identification of genetic factors that increase the expression of XO, and/or contribute to chronic hyperuricemia support the concept of a “second hit” – a factor or factors that accelerate the rate of disease progression when present. These new discoveries are an important first step in our understanding of why ADPKD progression may vary substantially even amongst family members. These discoveries highlight an opportunity to develop a personalized therapeutic approach for individuals whose unique genetic factors predisposed them to ADPKD, and the need for XO inhibition to treat those individuals at risk. We believe that XORTX’s expertise in developing XO inhibitors, protected by a patent portfolio that anticipated this opportunity, combined with our therapeutic platform is ideally positioned to deliver targeted therapeutics to individuals. Our planned clinical trial in patients with ADPKD will provide an opportunity to further understand the role of these newly identified genetic factors in individuals with progressive kidney disease.”

About Xanthine Oxidase

Evidence for over-expression of XO in human PKD has not been reported to date, although work by Wang et al. suggests linkage of genetic factors to PKD¹. Recently, new emerging discoveries link genetic factors to specific populations and show that higher XO expression is associated with a variety of conditions including hyperuricemia², sepsis, organ failure and sepsis associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)^3,4, kidney dysfunction^3,4, diabetes⁵, polycystic kidney disease^1,5 and kidney failure^6,7. From a mechanistic standpoint, these studies advocate for a precision-medicine approach in which genetic risk variants would guide treatment decisions¹.

References:

1. Korsmo HW, Emerging roles of xanthine oxidoreductase in chronic kidney disease, Antioxidants, June 2024
2. Major TJ, et all, Evaluation of the diet wide contribution to serum urate levels: Met-analysis of population-based cohorts, BMJ, 363, k3952, 2018
3. Gao, Li et al., Xanthine oxidoreductase gene polymorphism are associated with high risk of sepsis and organ failure, Respir. Res, 24, 177_2023
4. Liu H, et al., Genetic variants in XDH are associated with prognosis off gastric cancer in a Chines population, 663, 196, 2013
5. Wang et al., Genetic susceptibility to diabetic kidney disease is linked to promoter variants of XOR. “The authors identified an expression quantitative trait loci (QTL) in the cis-acting regulatory region of the xanthine dehydrogenase, or xanthine oxidoreductase (XO), a binding site for C/EBPβ, to be associated with diabetes-induced podocyte loss in diabetic kidney disease in male mice.  They concluded that certain types of alleles of a gene that controls the expression of xanthine oxidase can be over expressed in CKD, diabetic kidney disease and polycystic kidney disease.
6. Kudo M et al., Functional Characterization of Genetic Polymorphisms Identified In the Promotor Region of the Xanthine Oxidase Gene, Drug Metab. Pharmacokinet., 25, 599, 2010
7. Boban M, et al., Circulating purine compound, uric acid, and xanthine oxidase/dehydrogenate relationship in essential hypertension and end stage renal disease., Ren. Fail., 36, 613, 2014

About XORTX Therapeutics Inc.

XORTX is a pharmaceutical company with two clinically advanced products in development: 1) our lead, XRx-008 program for ADPKD; and 2) our secondary program in XRx-101 for acute kidney and other acute organ injury associated with Coronavirus / COVID-19 infection. In addition, XRx-225 is a pre-clinical stage program for Type 2 Diabetic Nephropathy. XORTX is working to advance its clinical development stage products that target aberrant purine metabolism and xanthine oxidase to decrease or inhibit production of uric acid. At XORTX, we are dedicated to developing medications to improve the quality of life and health of kidney disease patients. Additional information on XORTX is available at www.xortx.com.

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Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor Nasdaq has approved or disapproved the contents of this news release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements pursuant to applicable securities laws. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the Company’s beliefs, plans, goals, objectives, expectations, assumptions, estimates, intentions, future performance, other statements that are not historical facts and statements identified by words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “seeks”, “estimates” or words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements and their implications are based on the current expectations of the management of XORTX only, and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, but are not limited to, our ability to obtain additional financing; the accuracy of our estimates regarding expenses, future revenues and capital requirements; the success and timing of our preclinical studies and clinical trials; the performance of third-party manufacturers and contract research organizations; our plans to develop and commercialize our product candidates; our plans to advance research in other kidney disease applications; and, our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates. Except as otherwise required by applicable law and stock exchange rules, XORTX undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. More detailed information about the risks and uncertainties affecting XORTX is contained under the heading “Risk Factors” in XORTX’s Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC, which is available on the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov (including any documents forming a part thereof or incorporated by reference therein), as well as in our reports, public disclosure documents and other filings with the securities commissions and other regulatory bodies in Canada, which are available on www.sedarplus.ca.

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