The Atrimer™ technology platform: Pioneering a new class of protein pharmaceuticals
The Atrimer technology platform brings extraordinary diversity and specificity to drug discovery.
The trivalent structure of Atrimer drug candidates affords three binding regions, each containing loops of amino-acid sequences that can be programmed to yield a drug candidate that binds to its target with high potency and exquisite specificity.
The Atrimer advantage originates in tetranectin, a human plasma protein of trivalent structure and the versatile basis of the Atrimer technology. Each of the three binding domains in tetranectin comprises five distinct amino-acid loops that can be programmed to bind potently and specifically to virtually any target of interest.
Typically the target will be a protein, and often a protein of trimeric structure, whether a cell-surface receptor or a ligand that binds to a receptor. A trimeric target can be engaged at each of its three member sites by a separate binding domain of the trivalent Atrimer drug candidate. Yet the versatility of the Atrimer technology can also yield drug candidates directed to non-trimeric targets with the possibility of binding to carbohydrate as well as protein targets. Iterative programming of the drug candidate further ensures that it will bind to its target with high potency and exquisite specificity, taking the signature precision of biologics to a still higher level.
Depending on the therapeutic strategy, Atrimer drug candidates may bind to cell-surface receptors, thus activating intracellular events to combat disease, or block binding to receptors, thus preventing events that result in disease.
Atrimer drug candidates thus exert a “full lock” on their respective targets. The promise is more efficacious therapy resulting from stronger and prolonged activation or blocking of the target pathway. Sustained binding may also enable a reduction in dosing frequency and total drug dose.
Aside from their binding characteristics, Atrimer drug candidates potentially have other advantages. When administered subcutaneously, they have been shown to be readily bioavailable, and at their relatively small size (60-70kDa) they should penetrate target tissues better than do whole antibodies.
The proprietary Atrimer technology platform pioneered by Anaphore offers a unique opportunity amid the pharmaceutical industry’s intensifying pursuit of new and more efficacious protein therapeutics. Atrimer therapeutics promise to go beyond the reach of today’s biologics, not only demonstrating novelty but also providing previously unattainable clinical benefits. Anaphore has already generated several libraries that can be screened to identify candidates to activate or block targets in multiple disease pathways as the therapeutic strategy demands.
The corporate partners of Anaphore have the opportunity to collaborate on the drug candidates already progressing in the Anaphore pipeline and to pursue other drug-development programs across the spectrum of therapeutic indications.