Samsara Therapeutics Completes Seed Funding Round to Advance Natural Geroprotective Small Molecule Pipeline

Longevity has always been an enduring topic in the medical community. In the last century, developed countries vigorously advanced medical technologies, significantly extending human life expectancy. However, people’s health status has not improved commensurately with increased longevity, and the incidence of chronic diseases associated with aging remains persistently high.

On February 19, 2019, the prestigious scientific journal Nature published a paper titled “The flavonoid 4,4′-dimethoxychalcone promotes autophagy-dependent longevity across species,” authored by the scientific team at Samsara Therapeutics. The study showcased novel geroprotective small molecules with new mechanisms of action (MoA) discovered via the Samsara platform, which extend healthspan across species and confer protective effects in mammalian disease models.

Samsara Therapeutics is a longevity-focused startup founded in 2018. It was co-founded by two biology professors from the University of Graz in Austria, Frank Madeo and Didac Carmona-Gutierrez, and two biology professors from Paris Descartes University, Guido Kroemer and Oliver Kepp. These four professors have conducted outstanding research in the fields of cellular senescence, yeast aging, cancer biology, and immunogenic cell death, respectively, and wield significant influence in the anti-aging sector.

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media that Samsara Therapeutics announced on February 26 the completion of its seed funding round, with the amount undisclosed. The company plans to use the proceeds from the seed financing to advance its existing pipeline of therapeutic candidates and to continue identifying new candidates through proprietary phenotypic screening of selected chemical libraries. The round was led by Apollo Ventures, and Dr. James Peyer, Executive Partner at Apollo Ventures, has joined the Board of Directors of Samsara Therapeutics.

Samsara Therapeutics pointed out in its released research report that aging is associated with multiple chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. Attempting to address age-related conditions through single-disease-focused research, even if significant progress is made, would yield minimal improvement in the overall health status of the elderly population. Therefore, Samsara Therapeutics aims to identify common underlying causes of age-related diseases to tackle aging-associated conditions. Currently, all known methods in the medical field for extending lifespan involve autophagy.

Autophagy is an intracellular recycling process in which damaged or excess macromolecules and organelles are sequestered within double-membrane vesicles (autophagosomes) and then targeted to lysosomes for bulk degradation. This process facilitates cytoplasmic renewal and subsequent cellular regeneration. Age-related diseases result from autophagic dysfunction.

Samsara Therapeutics screened 180 natural compounds with anti-aging properties for clinical trials and found that the flavonoid 4,4'-dimethoxychalcone (DMC) extended the lifespan of both worms and flies by approximately 20%, without affecting their food intake or reproductive capacity. Furthermore, worms and flies fed with DMC exhibited varying degrees of increased autophagic flux.

DMC is extracted from the longevity herb Ashitaba, which is found on Okinawa Island in Japan, home to many long-lived residents.

The paper titled “Flavonoid 4,4′-Dimethoxychalcone Promotes Autophagy and Extends Lifespan Across Species,” published by Samsara Therapeutics, indicates that the flavonoid 4,4′-dimethoxychalcone (DMC) exhibits phylogenetically conserved anti-aging properties, enabling cross-species cytoprotection and autophagy induction. Moreover, DMC-induced autophagy is independent of TORC1 kinase but relies on specific GATA transcription factors. As TORC1 kinase is a primary regulator of autophagy, this suggests that DMC acts synergistically with other anti-aging interventions that depend on TORC1 kinase.

Sebastian Aguiar, Chief Operating Officer of Samsara Therapeutics, commented, “This paper published in Nature marks the beginning of exploring natural longevity compounds.”

Apollo Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm established in 2016, primarily investing in the biosciences sector with operations across Europe and North America. Apollo Ventures also focuses on age-related diseases and therapies aimed at extending healthspan, dedicating itself to the development of novel drugs to increase human healthspan.

(Editor: Wang Chan)