Can Damage to a Stressed Cell Be Reversed?

Soley Therapeutics’ co-founder and CEO Yerem Yeghiazarians, MD, spoke with Pharmaceutical Executive about the unique approach his company took to developing its core technology. According to him, the concept began with a focus on how different cells react to stress as opposed to targeting a specific virus or endpoint.

PE: Can damage to a stressed cell be reversed?
Yeghiazarians: For many non-oncology diseases, the cells are exposed to many different stressors over time. The stress level in the cell goes up, and then that cell becomes highly dysfunctional. For example, take islet cells in the pancreas. If over time, they become highly dysfunctional. They stop producing insulin. You can take Parkinson's disease, the dopaminergic releasing cells, they become highly dysfunctional, and they stop producing dopamine, and that leads to the Parkinsonian symptoms.

In hair loss, hair follicles become highly stressed, and they become highly dysfunctional until the cell is completely dead. You can actually intervene and revert that process. Think of it as IPs, but without gene manipulation. Instead, it uses small molecules to revert that cellular stress to make it better, functional, and healthier and allow it to survive longer. This is also applicable to many other diseases.