Immunotherapy delivery system to improve organ transplantation outcomes

Value Proposition

• Novel Therapy: Hydro(LNp), is a new therapeutic application that will improve outcomes for organ transplant recipients.
• Convenient Delivery: Hydro(LNp) is a two-phase delivery system that increases effectiveness in regulating transplant rejection.
• Broad Scope: Has the potential to adapt for applications beyond transplantation, involving cancer, autoimmunity, and regenerative medicine.

Unmet Need

After end-stage organ diseases and other devastating tissue loss, transplantation becomes the only therapeutic option. However, transplanted patients need to receive high doses of multi-drug immunosuppressive therapy for the rest of their life to prevent rejection. This current standard often does more harm than good, with dangerous side effects including nephrotoxicity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and higher predisposition to infections and cancer. Therefore, there is an unmet need to identify a safer and effective treatment plan for transplant recipients.

Technology Description

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified that concomitant inhibition of the JAK/STAT pathway (via small molecule inhibitors) and of a key costimulatory pathway (via the biologic CTLA4-Ig) improves the control of the immune response to a transplant. When these two methods come together, they create “Enhanced Costimulation Blockade (ECoB), generating positive results without many rejection episodes or side effects. Joining forces with researchers at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (JH-APL), the multidisciplinary team engineered a dual component delivery system called Hydro(LNp), which delivers JAK inhibitors (JAKi) in a dual form: microcrystalline drug deposits in the hydrogel and lipid nanoparticles encapsulated drug. This product can be injected near the transplant site and the microcrystalline drug is released locally, while the LNp carry it to the specific distal sites where the immune response against the transplant is initiated. The net result is a localized synergy with CTLA4-Ig that effectively prevents graft rejection. 

Stage of Development

·      Pre-clinical

Data Availability

·      In vivo and clinical data

Looking for Partners to:

Commercialize immunotherapy drug delivery system to improve organ transplant outcomes

Publication

·      WO2023240195