Mirror Image Phage Display Discovery of a D-peptide TNFα Inhibitor for the Oral Treatment of Inflammatory Disease
October 19
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12:00 PM
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1:00 PM
Alan Wahl, PhD
President
D Biotherapeutics, LLC
Abstract:
The inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha is a central protagonist in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease. As such, biologic inhibitors of TNFa, primarily antibody and derivatives, comprise a $40 B+ market for treatment of these diseases. Though successful, these biotherapeutics require parenteral delivery, and frequently elicit an immune response, blunting their therapeutic utility. To obviate these limitations, we’ve used the technique of Mirror Image Phage Display to discover a potent synthetic inhibitor of TNFa. Comprised of all D-amino acids, the enantiomeric peptide is not recognized by common proteases, shows exceptional gut stability, no detectable immunogenicity, and efficacy in multiple models of TNFa-driven inflammatory disease, thus providing an orally bioavailable alternative to injectable biologics for systemic disease and direct delivery opportunity for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
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