NEW YORK, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Intellect Neurosciences, Inc. (OTCBB: ILNS), a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of disease-modifying therapeutic agents for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases, today announced it has filed three new patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which expand the Company’s immunotherapy pipeline.
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The patent applications are based on Intellect’s discovery that chemically stabilized protein aggregates present in Huntington‘s and Parkinson’s disease, among others, can be used as immunogens to produce monoclonal antibodies that selectively detect pathogenic aggregates of these proteins and not other physiologically relevant proteins. These antibodies have diagnostic utility, as well as therapeutic potential for passive immunotherapy while minimizing the possibility for off-target side effects. A separate component of Intellect’s discovery relates to the company’s ability to identify unique epitopes that are only present in these protein aggregates. This has important implications for producing vaccines that could be used in active immunotherapy for the prophylaxis of these diseases.
“These innovations further expand our pipeline and enhance Intellect’s competitive edge in the Alzheimer’s disease and neurodegenerative drug discovery and development field,” said Dr. Daniel G. Chain, Chairman and CEO, Intellect Neurosciences and named inventor on the patent applications. “The new technology has far-reaching utility across a broad spectrum of diseases that are linked by protein aggregation and makes possible the development of a new class of therapeutics to tackle these difficult areas, several of which are considered to represent the last frontier of medicine.”
There is evidence that numerous diseases characterized by amyloid proteins start with the formation of neurotoxic aggregates. By selectively targeting these aggregates using Intellect’s novel approach it should be possible to avoid potential side effects and obtain higher molar active dosage forms of antibodies capable of neutralizing or clearing the toxins. The methods covered in Intellect’s new patent applications potentially may be applied to numerous proteinopathies, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Pick’s disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Corticobasal Degeneration, Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration, Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases, Multiple System Atrophy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Type II diabetes Mellitus, among others.
The new patents build on Intellect’s other technology platforms, which are designed to produce therapeutic antibodies and vaccines that specifically target the earliest steps in the pathogenesis of proteinopathies. Intellect discovered that stabilization of dimers, trimers and oligomers using chemical cross linking permits generation of well-defined immunogens. The Intellect immunogens, once created, can be used to develop antibodies or vaccines with exquisite specificity for the neurotoxic forms of proteinopathies that occur very early in disease, making them exceptionally attractive targets for disease-modifying therapies. Another distinct method Intellect utilizes identifies neoepitopes that are formed when the intact precursor protein is cleaved by executioner enzymes to yield a shorter, more toxic fragment. Intellect has shown both methods can be used to identify novel epitopes available for interaction with antibodies only in these toxic proteins, thus making it possible to avoid potential side effects and obtain higher molar active dosage forms capable of neutralizing or clearing the toxins in these diseases.
Intellect continues to make new discoveries and acquire technologies that will generate future medical therapies. The company plans to foster the compounds through proof-of-concept, and then partner them to companies that have the ability to manage complex global clinical development programs.
About Intellect Neurosciences
Intellect Neurosciences, Inc., develops innovative approaches aimed at arresting or preventing Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, with a specific focus on proteinopathies. Intellect’s pipeline includes therapeutic vaccines, antibodies and neuroprotective antibody drug conjugates.
The company currently is developing products based on three platform technologies: ANTISENILIN® is Intellect’s Alzheimer’s beta amyloid monoclonal antibody platform technology, which underlies a product in Phase 3 clinical trials and is licensed to major pharmaceutical companies. ANTISENILIN also underlies IN-N01, a humanized monoclonal antibody being developed by the company as an antibody dug conjugate (ADC). IN-N01-OX2 is the first candidate to emerge from the company’s CONJUMAB-A platform technology, which is based on a novel application of antibody drug conjugates in which the antibody is chemically conjugated to a small molecule (OX2) that has potent neuroprotective properties both as an antioxidant and inhibitor of protein aggregation. RECALL-VAX is a therapeutic vaccine technology that underlies three preclinical drug candidates, RV01 and RVO2, which target beta amyloid and delta tau protein, respectively, and RVO3, which is a combination of the two.
The company recently licensed OX1, a small molecule multimodal antioxidant, to ViroPharma, Inc. for Friedreich’s Ataxia and other neurodegenerative diseases. For more information, please visit www.intellectns.com.
Safe Harbor Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
The statements in this release and oral statements made by representatives of Intellect Neurosciences relating to matters that are not historical facts (including, without limitation, those regarding future performance or financial results, the timing or potential outcomes of research collaborations or clinical trials, any market that might develop for any of Intellect’s product candidates and the sufficiency of Intellect’s cash and other capital resources) are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the likelihood that actual performance or results could materially differ, that future research will prove successful, the likelihood that any product in the research pipeline will receive regulatory approval in the United States or abroad, or Intellect’s ability to fund such efforts with or without partners. Intellect undertakes no obligation to update any of these statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as to the date hereof. Accordingly, any forward-looking statements should be read in conjunction with the additional risks and uncertainties detailed in Intellect’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in Intellect’s Annual Report on Form 10-K (file no. 333-128226), filed on October 13, 2011, and in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2012, which was filed on May 14, 2012.
Contact: |
Jules Abraham JQA Partners, LLC |
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SOURCE Intellect Neurosciences, Inc.
