Promising pre-clinical data in Cystic Fibrosis for ProtAffin AG’s PA401 to be presented at ATS, Philadelphia, 17-22 May 2013
ProtAffin AG, a biotechnology company developing a novel class of next-generation biopharmaceuticals for inflammation, respiratory disease and oncology, has announced that a collaboration with a leading European centre for the study of cystic fibrosis has generated promising pre-clinical results for the company’s lead anti-inflammatory product, PA401.
A collaboration with scientists at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Dublin, has shown that exposure of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with cystic fibrosis to increasing concentrations of PA401 significantly reduced the level of detectable IL-8 in that fluid. These results will be presented at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference in Philadelphia this May. Professor McElvaney, Director of the Respiratory Research Laboratory, RCSI, commented: "Clinical application of an IL-8 decoy such as PA401 could lessen the inflammatory burden in the cystic fibrosis lung”.
PA401 is an engineered form of the human chemokine IL-8, currently in a Phase 1 clinical study in London. Human IL-8 (CXCL8) is a chemokine produced by macrophages, endothelial and other cells and its primary function is the attraction of neutrophils to sites of acute and chronic inflammation. PA401 prevents this natural function. It acts as a potent, targeted anti-inflammatory protein preventing the infiltration of neutrophils which is a hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF).
