AdvanceCOR
GPVI inhibitory antibodies
GPVI inhibitory antibodies in detail
Blocking the
platelet GPVI
In addition to Revacept, advanceCOR is adressing another approach to inhibit the attachment of platelets to the wall of a blood vessel. While Revacept blocks the GPVI attachment site at the region of a damaged vessel wall, the second approach is to block platelet GPVI itself. To this end, advanceCOR has developed highly specific antibodies in a collaboration with Morphosys AG. Such antibodies can inhibit the function of GPVI.
Highly specific antibody fragments (Fab fragments) were obtained from the Ylanthia-Fab antibody library generated by Morphosys AG. They are fully human antibodies, that means they contain only sequences from human antibodies and are therefore more tolerable tolerable by the human organsism than animal derived antibodies. advanceCOR has received an exclusive licence from Morphosys for these highly specific, modern antibodies and is now developing them further as novel drugs for the treatment of heart attack and stroke.
Pre-clinical trials &
lab experiments
All pre-clinical trials with these antibodies have been very promising in terms of efficacy, safety and tolerability. Laboratory studies have effectively prevented the formation of blood clots in arteries. Similar to Revacept, these antibodies do not influence general haemostasis.
Further laboratory experiments with human tissue material were carried out by the research group led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Siess at the University of Munich Hospital. The researchers allowed human blood to flow over damaged segments of blood vessels (“plaques”) that had been surgically removed from patients during their treatment. It was shown that anti-GPVI antibodies inhibit the attachment of platelets to the damaged vessel walls. These results were published in the renowned American Journal of the American College of Cardiology by Jamasbi et al., 2015. A discussion of these exclusive new developments of advanceCOR can be found in an accompanying editorial by Neal S. Kleiman and Kumaran Kolandaivelu in the same issue.
At advanceCOR we are currently establishing GMP-compliant production of the antibodies in precisely controlled cell lines. This will allow us to carry out the necessary safety and toxicity studies on these antibodies, which will then be used in clinical trials.