Immunology and Biotherapies

True North is developing novel humanized antibodies that inhibit pathogenic activity of the Complement pathway of the immune system. In contrast to conventional drug development approaches that focus primarily on inhibiting downstream components of the Complement cascade, True North’s therapeutics are designed to selectively target and block upstream processes in pathways of the Complement system.

True North’s deepest drug discovery expertise involves the Classical Complement pathway, which is a pathway that has not previously been successfully pursued for drug development. True North’s lead drug candidate, TNT009, selectively targets the Classical Complement pathway to address fundamental disease mechanisms.

Based on deep insights in Complement system biology, True North’s R&D engine is creating a pipeline of monoclonal antibodies focused on the treatment of Complement-mediated rare diseases in the hematologic, kidney transplant, and skin therapeutic areas.

Via Krishan Maggon

Abstract

Monoclonal antibodies represent the most successful class of biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer. Mechanisms of action of therapeutic antibodies are very diverse and reflect their ability to engage in antibody-dependent effector mechanisms, internalize to deliver cytotoxic payloads, and display direct effects on cells by lysis or by modulating the biological pathways of their target antigens. Importantly, one of the universal changes in cancer is glycosylation and carbohydrate-binding antibodies can be produced to selectively recognize tumor cells over normal tissues. A promising group of cell surface antibody targets consists of carbohydrates presented as glycolipids or glycoproteins. In this review, we outline the basic principles of antibody-based targeting of carbohydrate antigens in cancer. We also present a detailed structural view of antibody recognition and the conformational properties of a series of related tissue-blood group (Lewis) carbohydrates that are being pursued as potential targets of cancer immunotherapy.

Via Krishan Maggon