Innovative Targeting Solutions Generates Novel anti-GPCR Therapeutics Using an Extension of the HuTARG™ Technology to Graft Functional Peptides
December 1, 2012
Burnaby, B.C., Canada. December 1st, 2012. – Innovative Targeting Solutions Inc. (ITS) a pioneer in novel protein engineering technologies, today announced the successful application of the company’s HuTARG technology for the generation of peptide grafted antibodies against GLP1R and an undisclosed second antigen. Although antibodies are a validated therapeutic class with broad applications and have been generated against numerous epitopes, there are important clinically relevant receptor classes, including GPCRs and ion channels, which have historically been difficult to target. Peptides show promise against these challenging targets but they often have limitations as therapeutics. Engineering the peptide of interest into an antibody framework by peptide grafting exploits both the biology of the peptide and the antibody scaffold overcoming the intrinsic limitations of peptide based therapies such as proteolytic processing and short serum half-life. ITS believes the HuTARG technology that utilizes V(D)J recombination coupled to mammalian cell surface display is ideally suited for identifying the appropriate conformational context to obtain a functionally grafted peptide. In addition to diversity of both the length and composition of the peptide flanking sequences, the peptide is screened in the context of the full VH and VK repertoire. The mammalian display platform allows for selection of rare antibodies with the optimally grafted confirmation. The company’s lead program is an antibody with reactivity to the GLP1 receptor.
The data from these two programs will be presented at IBC’s 2012 Antibody Engineering & Antibody Therapeutics conference and a copy of the poster can be downloaded from http://itsas01.azurewebsites.net/its-ab-engineering-dec-2012/
About Innovative Targeting Solutions Inc.
Founded in 2008, Innovative Targeting Solutions Inc. is a privately‐held company that has developed a next generation platform for the generation of fully human antibody therapeutics using its proprietary HuTARG technology. The HuTARG technology is a fully mammalian technology that generates antibody diversity in vitro via RAG1/RAG2 mediated V(D)J recombination.