Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetics of Oral EC5026 in Healthy Subjects

This is a single-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase 1a single ascending dose study evaluating the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of sequential doses of oral EC5026 in healthy male and female subjects. EC5026 is an inhibitor of the soluble Epoxide Hydrolase (sEH) enzyme developed as a first-in-class analgesic for the treatment of pain. This study will help refine the dosing strategy for subsequent multiple-dose studies in healthy subjects and for future clinical trials in patients with neuropathic pain. sEH is an enzyme that is downstream in the cytochrome P450 (CYP) pathway of the arachidonic acid (AA) cascade. The sEH enzyme is responsible of metabolizing a class of epoxy-fatty acids known as epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), which are potent, naturally occurring analgesics. EETs are produced at high concentrations in areas of tissue damage and inflammation, but are rapidly metabolized by the sEH enzyme into inactive compounds. Effective inhibition of sEH activity prolongs the ability of EETs to exert their analgesic activity.