Immune System of Arenavirus Platform
The immune system is the body’s natural defense mechanism against pathogens. Our proprietary technology is capable of targeting and treating disease with a tailored immune response. Our science is based on a novel and highly differentiated delivery platform based on arenaviruses, a family of naturally-occurring viruses.
Our platform is based on engineering arenaviruses to carry and deliver virus-specific or tumor-specific genes directly in patients to evoke an immune response by T cells, also known as CD8+ T cells. T cells play an important role in the body’s immune response, acting like soldiers who search out and destroy the targeted invaders. Arenaviruses have been used for decades as a preclinical tool to study T cell responses.
Our co-founder, Rolf Zinkernagel, was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his arenavirus-based work on how CD8+ T cells recognize virus-infected cells. We believe that arenaviruses have several key advantages which give them the characteristics of an optimal antigen-specific immunotherapy, including:
- ability to induce a robust CD8+ T cell response by directly targeting and activating dendritic cells, which are the most efficient antigen-presenting cells of the body;
- ability to induce a robust antibody response to disease-specific target antigens;
- allow for repeat administration that can boost immune response;
- they do not require an adjuvant to stimulate the immune system; and
- have been observed to be well tolerated in preclinical studies and clinical trials.
We are pioneers in arenavirus therapeutics with a proprietary scientific platform to systematically and reproducibly engineer potent arenavirus-based therapies. Our two technologies are capable of delivering disease-specific antigens for the prevention and treatment of disease.