PL9654 / Palatin Technologies - LARVOL DELTA

Palatin Presents Promising Preclinical Data on Melanocortin Agonists for Retinopathy at ARVO 2025 (PRNewswire) - "Key Findings: Vision preservation: PL9654 and PL9655 maintained contrast vision and showed significant efficacy compared to vehicle; Inflammation control: Gene set enrichment analysis revealed downregulation of immune-related pathways in microglia and Müller glial cells for PL9654 and PL9655 compared to vehicle; Retinal protection: PL9654 reduced ischemia-reperfusion-induced retinal damage (as measured by histological scoring), similar to the melanocortin peptide α-MSH; Anti-angiogenesis: PL9654 significantly inhibited choroidal neovascularization and fibrosis (P<0.01). PL9655 topical treatment also showed an increase in rods compared with vehicle."

Preclinical • Diabetic Retinopathy

Activating the melanocortin system resolves inflammation, reduces VEGF signaling in diabetic retinopathy (DR), and provides retinal ganglion cell (RGC) protection (ARVO 2025) - "The melanocortin receptor agonists PL9654 and PL9655 preserve vision in rat DR models...Layman Abstract (optional): Provide a 50-200 word description of your work that non-scientists can understand. Describe the big picture and the implications of your findings, not the study itself and the associated details."

Diabetic Retinopathy • Ophthalmology • Retinal Disorders • FGF2 • GFAP • NRP1

Efficacy and impact of the melanocortin receptor agonists PL8177 and PL9654 in an STZ-rat model of diabetic retinopathy (DR) (ARVO 2022) - "SC BID administration of the melanocortin agonists PL9654 and PL8177 show promise in the treatment of DR by reducing vision loss and photoreceptor degeneration in the STZ-rat model of DR. Single nuclei RNAseq and proteomic data will be interpreted in the context of disease change to identify alterations in immune and cellular states of the rat retinas."

Preclinical • Cataract • Diabetic Retinopathy • Ocular Inflammation • Ophthalmology • Retinal Disorders