Hi Barry,

There has been a recent development: a neuropathy biomarker called sarm1 has been identified by a start-Up company called Disarm. Disarm was recently acquired by Lilly. Sarm1 is a naturally occurring protein that is activated when a nerve is damaged. Sarm1 induces inflammation which further damages the nerve and surrounding tissue. Lilly is developing inhibitors of sarm1 which could act to stop the inflammatory reaction and stop further damage to the nerve. I don't know if inhibitors have been identified yet. However, I think we are looking at 5-10 years before such inhibitor could make it to market.

One big selling point for this line of research is that such inhibitors could be useful in the treatment of other neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's. In short, there could be a big market for such inhibitors which obviously is a big motivating factor for pharmaceutical companies.

Margaret