Proteomics used to investigate effects on inflammation response following vascular surgery and treatment with the immunovascular antibody PC-mAb Scientists report a proteomic study of systemic inflammation following vascular surgery and treatment with the fully human antibody PC-mAb from Athera at the recent 19th Swedish Cardiovascular Spring meeting. The group of scientists, from Örebro University, Karolinska Institutet and the biotech company Athera, concluded that proteomics can be used to study treatment effects in future studies. The fully human antibody PC-mAb is designed to mimic the anti-inflammatory role of endogenous antibodies against PC and act to support the immune response to vascular inflammation challenges and thereby reduce the risk for complications.
Revascularization in the legs in patients with severe peripheral arterial disease, PAD, is done to restore blood flow, to reduce pain and restore mobility. However, the risk for amputation of the affected limb is still high, as well as severe events like heart attack and stroke. Open surgery is well known to cause an acute inflammatory reaction lasting for days and weeks, and patients suffer an increased risk for complications during this period, but it is still largely unknown how the surgery affects inflammation mediators. Proteomic analysis in longitudinal samples can give such information, knowledge that could improve risk management in the sub-acute phase following surgery. The patients were participating in a safety study of PC-mAb, a novel fully human therapeutic antibody targeting phosphorylcholine (PC), a key mediator of vascular inflammation. Blood samples were obtained before and at several time points after surgery. A novel multiplex proteomics assay from OLINK was used to determine levels of 251 proteins. As expected, established markers for the acute phase reaction (IL-6 and CRP) were markedly elevated after surgery. Moreover, 65 of 251 proteins measured were significantly increased from baseline to the days after surgery. Only 3 proteins were significantly reduced in the acute phase following surgery and 18 proteins were differentially affected by treatment with PC-mAb. The results are promising and support the use of proteomics analysis to be used to study treatment effects of PC-mAb in future clinical studies.
For more information, contact: Carina Schmidt, CEO, Athera Biotechnologies AB Phone: +46 (0)76 1938 190, email: c.schmidt@athera.se
About Athera Biotechnologies AB
The mission of Athera is to address the large unmet need for anti-inflammatory therapeutics in the treatment of immunovascular disease. Athera´s focus is on PC-mAb, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical program with block-buster potential. In addition, Athera has developed a biomarker and companion diagnostics product, CVDefine® kit. The biomarker could in the future be used for identification of patients that benefit from Athera’s novel therapeutics. Development of PC-mAb has been co-funded by EU FP7 in the CARDIMMUN project. Major shareholders are Industrifonden, The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjöstiftelsen) and Linc AB.For more information: [www.athera.se](http://www.athera.se/)
