Respana Therapeutics, Inc — Department of Health and Human Services STTR Phase I: NIAID

Description

AbstractRespana Therapeuticsis focused on developing a proprietary monoclonal antibodymAbto address morbidities and mortality associated with both seasonal and pandemic influenza illnessThe product will be an injectable mAb that calibrates the immune response to respiratory infectionattenuates injurious inflammation and expedites restoration of lung health after influenza A virusIAVinfectionOur goal is to develop a safeaffordablescalable and widely available product that can be used in conjunction with current anti influenza medications to improve outcomes for influenza patientsreduce duration of symptomsreduce post influenza bacterial respiratory infections such as pneumonia or sinusitisreduce hospitalizations and mortalityand strengthen the health care systems ability to combat seasonal and pandemic influenzaRespiratory influenza infection creates a widespread innate and adaptive immune system response that causes acute inflammation in the lungThis inflammatory responsewhile necessary to fighting the viruscan persist in the lung long after the offending virus is cleared and can lead to further morbiditiesincluding secondary bacterial pneumoniahospitalization due to serious lung injuryand ultimately deathOur innovative work on the surfactant proteinSP Areceptor SP Rhas shown that it increases phagocytosis of SP A bound pathogens and modulates cytokine secretion by immune cellsSP A plays an important role in pulmonary immunity by enhancing opsonization and clearance of pathogens and by modulating macrophage inflammatory responsesOur data support a biological model in which SP Risoforms differentially regulate traffickingexpressionand activation of innate immune receptors on macrophagesProof of concept studies in vivo show that IAV infected micewhen treated with SP Rtargeted mAbsrecover more quicklyhave better post infection lung functionand show better lung histopathology than untreated miceOur specific objective for phaseis to showin a dose rangingstatistically powered animal studythat animals treated with SP RmAbs recover faster from influenza infectiondemonstrate improved lung function throughout the post viral infection period and show reduced susceptibility to post viral bacterial infectionA secondary objective is to assess the impact of SP Rantibodies on humoral and mucosal innate immunity NarrativeRespana Therapeuticsis developing a proprietary monoclonal antibodymAbto address morbidities and mortality associated with both seasonal and pandemic influenza illnessInfluenza infection creates a widespread innate and adaptive immune system response that causes acute inflammation in the lungThis inflammation can persist long after the offending virus is cleared and can lead to further respiratory morbidities such as post viral bacterial pneumoniaWe intend to demonstrate that when influenza infected mice are treated with our proprietary SP RmAbthey recover fasterdemonstrate improved lung function and reduced morbidities throughout the post viral infection period versus mice not treatedThis project will test the potential of our therapy to limit disease progressionmorbidity and mortality from influenza infection