The Technology
Current therapies for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), asthma and IBD are only partially effective and more effective therapies are needed, especially in those patients with severe/highly active diseases. Semaphorin3A (sema3A) is well known for its regulatory functions at all stages of immune response (it increases the function of T and B regulatory cells) and also as an angiogenic inhibitor. As it has high potential for regulating pro‐inflammatory immune responses, sema3A was used in several mice models, including SLE, Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), allergic rhinitis, and bronchial asthma. Sema3A effectively reduced inflammation/allergic reaction and improved disease outcome in all.
A truncated/point mutated sema3A was generated ( T-sema3A) and shown to retain the immune beneficiary properties of wild type sema3A while at the same time is expected to display fewer side effects because it interacts with only a subset the sema3A receptors as compared with wild type sema3A. Moreover, T-sema3A is smaller than the wild type, and may thus be more diffusible and less difficult to produce in large quantities. T-sema3A therefore has the potential to be developed into a novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of auto-immune diseases such as SLE or asthma.
Advantages
- Fewer side effects as compared to wild type sema-3A
Applications and Opportunities
- Treatment of immune mediated diseases, including autoimmune diseases such as SLE, RA, IBD and Uveitis
- Treatment of allergic diseases such as: bronchial asthma, allergic conjunctivitis and allergic rhinitis
- Treatment of inflammatory diseases (e.g. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF))
- Treatment of other diseases, such as over-whelming sepsis, cytokine storm, graft-versus-host disease and
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