Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.BIND Therapeutics and Navidea subsidiary Macrophage Therapeutics have entered into a research collaboration to engineer Accurins with the Manocept targeting platform that allows selective, efficient binding to CD206 positive disease-associated macrophages.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
BIND is a clinical-stage nanomedicine company that develops targeted and programmable therapeutics called Accurins.
Following achievement of proof-of-concept, both the firms intend to expand the collaboration to develop Manocept-linked Accurins as a new potent approach to impact the tumor microenvironment which, in many forms of cancer, is a barrier to immune effector cells.
BIND Therapeutics president and chief executive officer Andrew Hirsch said: "This collaboration represents a potentially significant advance in the evolution of our platform as we develop Accurins with novel targeting ligands.
"The modular nature of our platform offers multiple therapeutic possibilities, and our collaboration with Macrophage Therapeutics may enable the development of Accurins that target activated macrophages, which in cancer, help create an immunosuppressive microenvironment.
"We believe the clinically validated Manocept platform, with its unique ability to seek out activated macrophages, fits into our vision to engineer Accurins that have a profound impact on the treatment of diseases, including our current focus in cancer."
The company said that generally, disease-associated macrophages play a pro-tumoral role and are immunosuppressive, preventing the immune system from mounting an attack on tumor cells.
Based on the expression of CD206 mannose receptors on disease-associated macrophages, both the firms intend to conduct joint research to develop a CD206 targeted Accurin nanoparticle that is capable of concentrating various therapeutic payloads to the tumor microenvironment.
Navidea claims that the collaboration advances it vision to develop therapeutic applications of the Manocept platform through strategic partnerships.
Accurins is a new class of targeted therapeutics developed using BIND’s Medicinal Nanoengineering platform and they are engineered to have a profound impact on the treatment of disease.
According to the company, accurins can be engineered for multiple therapeutic applications and have the potential to integrate numerous payloads, including highly potent drugs with mechanism-based toxicities that limit therapeutic benefit, DNA, RNA, proteins and immunotherapy agents.