Parvus Therapeutics Publication of Preclinical Proof-of-Concept Research that Underlies the Development of Navacim™ Therapeutics for the Treatment of Autoimmune Liver Diseases
Research underpins part of the recently executed license and collaboration agreement to develop, manufacture and commercialize Navacim™therapeutics for treatment of gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases, including autoimmune liver disease
Article published in Nature Communications
BURLINGAME, Calif. & CALGARY, Alberta — June 26, 2019 — (BUSINESS WIRE) Parvus Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of disease-specific immunoregulatory medicines to treat autoimmune diseases without impairing normal immunity, today announced publication of preclinical proof-of-concept research demonstrating that Navacim therapeutics induce immune tolerance to specific autoantigens resulting in disease reversal while maintaining normal immune system function in multiple preclinical models of autoimmune liver disease (ALD). The findings from this research underpin part of the recently announced license and collaboration agreement to develop Navacim therapeutics for gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases, including autoimmune liver diseases (ALD). The article was published in Nature Communications (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09893-5).
“Although current treatments for chronic inflammatory diseases, such as IBD, ALD, and rheumatoid arthritis, offer significant therapeutic benefits to patients, their generalized immune suppressive activity can result in a range of potentially serious side effects, including infection and possibly malignancy,” said Pere Santamaria, M.D., Ph.D., founder and chief scientific officer of Parvus, and senior author of the paper. “Parvus was founded to leverage the discovery of Navacims to develop a better approach to treating these diseases. This study demonstrates that our Navacim platform technology can generate a precision therapeutic outcome in several validated animal models for ALD and, thus, has the potential to do the same in humans.”
The article, entitled “Suppression of a Broad Spectrum of Liver Autoimmune Pathologies by Single Peptide-MHC-Based Nanomedicines,” investigated the ability of Navacim therapeutics (a peptide-major histocompatibility complex class II-based nanomedicine) that displayed tissue-specific autoantigenic peptides associated with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) or autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) to reprogram CD4+ T cells into disease-suppressing type 1 regulatory T (TR1) cells in animal models. The investigators found that administration of the Navacim therapeutic was able to blunt PBC, PSC and AIH, without suppressing general immunity or local immunity against infection or metastatic tumors. Therapeutic activity was associated with TR1 recruitment to the site of the disease, the liver, as well as suppression of other pro-inflammatory processes in the liver. The authors concluded that from a translational standpoint, this study identified disease-modifying compounds for several complex liver autoimmune diseases that represent unmet medical needs.
“Our objective is to leverage our Navacim technology to develop highly innovative, well-tolerated, disease modifying treatments for a broad range of autoimmune diseases,” said Curtis Ruegg, Ph.D., President and CEO of Parvus. “This important research provides further in vivoproof-of-concept results that we are able to induce immune tolerance to a specific autoantigen while leaving normal immune system function intact. Our conviction in the potential of our Navacim technology is affirmed by our partnerships with two top-tier biopharmaceutical companies to develop Navacim therapeutics for several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases including ALD.”
About Navacims™
Navacims are a precision medicine platform designed to trigger a naturally occurring immunoregulatory mechanism of the mammalian immune system which has evolved to protect against autoimmune disease. As selected for each disease, Navacims present a singular, peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) at supra-physiological density, targeting cognate T cell receptors (TCR) on disease relevant T cells. Navacim binding causes a sustained assembly of TCR microclusters and prolonged signaling leading to disease-specific type 1 regulatory T (TR1) cell differentiation. Because Navacim activity depends on the presence of disease-causing, autoimmune T cells, their action is self-limiting. In preclinical disease models, Navacims have demonstrated broad therapeutic activity and disease reversal across a range of autoimmune disorders including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, ALD and IBD while consistently preserving immunocompetence to resist viral, microbial, and tumor challenges.
About Parvus Therapeutics Inc.
Parvus Therapeutics Inc. is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development and commercialization of Navacim therapeutics targeting autoimmune diseases. Navacims were discovered by Pere Santamaria, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Founder of Parvus, Julia McFarlane/Diabetes Canada Professor of the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.
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