Arch Biopartners Inc. announced that patient recruitment and dosing has begun in Turkey for the Phase II trial for LSALT peptide targeting the prevention and treatment of cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CS-AKI). LSALT peptide is the Company's lead drug candidate for preventing and treating inflammation injury in the kidneys, lungs and liver. There are three hospital sites in Turkey actively screening cardiac surgery patients for this trial.osuyolu Research Hospital and Kocaeli University Research Hospital are located within and near Istanbul respectively.

The third site is Erciyes University, Faculty of Medicine Organ Transplant & Dialysis Hospital, and is located in central Turkey. There are three additional hospital sites in Turkey pending activation into the trial. LSALT peptide targets the dipeptidase-1 (DPEP-1) pathway and has been shown by Arch scientists and their collaborators to prevent IRI to the kidneys in pre-clinical models, providing the scientific rationale for Arch to use LSALT peptide in this CS-AKI trial.

Details of their findings were published in a Science Advances publication, titled "Dipeptidase-1 governs renal inflammation during ischemia reperfusion injury" by Lau et.al. and can be found at the following link at the journal's website. Advisory services and a funding contribution from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) announced by the Company in March 2023, will significantly offset the costs of the CS-AKI Phase II trial.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a known common complication in patients after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and other cardiac surgeries, including on-pump surgeries which increase the risk of AKI. The reported prevalence of CS-AKI is up to 30% and is independently associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality.