Technology Summary
A-CUBE uses proprietary algorithms to identify novel druggable sites on protein targets. Potential therapeutics targeting these sites represent new potential sources of significant revenue to address slowed growth in the pharmaceutical industry.Developed by A-CUBE's founder, Dr. Nobu Ota, the predictive algorithms exploit 3-dimensional (3D) protein structures, identifying specific, novel druggable sites. These algorithms have application in small and large molecule discovery as well as vaccine programs.
Applications
A-Cube is a technology leader in identifying B-cell epitopes, which are the binding sites for monoclonal antibodies and neutralizing antibodies. A-Cube's proprietary algorithm is applicable to proteins with either 3D structure or amino acid sequence.The five applications of our technology are as follows:
1. Generate new IP against clinically validated targets, which could either be valuable assets for pharmaceutical partners either to complement their own IP estate or to jump start a new drug development program (Examples PCSK9 and EGFR)
2. Validate mAbs in an existing development portfolio, as we can map a drug target for its epitopes and predict binding affinities for mAbs. This work might lead to improved versions of a drug candidate or enhances the confidence in already existing drug candidates.
3. Design new vaccines, either peptide based or DNA based; we are currently working on plasmids to consolidate several bacterial antigens into one DNA vaccine vector.
4. We successfully predict epitopes on proteins. We are confident that we can identify every mab binding site on a protein. Since we map those epitopes on a 3D structure of a target protein we can also design bi-specific mAbs with a high degree of accuracy.
5. Determine a modified and less immunogenic structure of chronically administered proteins which induce neutralizing antibodies (NAbs). Chronic use of therapeutic proteins can lead to the induction of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs), which in turn lead to the termination of therapy. While we do not think that we can entirely eliminate the induction of NAbs, we believe that we can come up with strategies to reduce the antigenic score of a protein. We have started to apply reverse RAD and were able in a model protein to successfully reduce the immunogenicity score. We know the technology is applicable to most if not all chronically administered proteins, including Factor VIII and monoclonal antibodies.