SOLVING FOR SELECTIVITY
What if we could harness the power of immunotherapies with unprecedented precision and direct them to only the cells that matter?
IT’S POSSIBLE WITH CIS-TARGETING
OUR CIS-TARGETED IMMUNOTHERAPIES deliver exquisite selectivity by engaging both an immunomodulatory receptor and a specific surface marker on the target cell. This directs the therapy to only the desired immune cell type while avoiding counterproductive signaling that limits efficacy and reduces therapeutic index.
THE ADVANTAGE OF CIS-TARGETED IMMUNOMODULATION
CONVENTIONAL CYTOKINE IMMUNOTHERAPY:
Unwanted Activation of Multiple Cell Types
With current cytokine therapies, activation of one cell type may promote efficacy, but the simultaneous activation of other cell types may have the counter-productive effects of inhibiting efficacy and driving toxicity.
CIS-TARGETED IMMUNOTHERAPY:
Directed to the Desired Immune Cell Type
By targeting only the immune cells that support anti-tumor activity, cis-targeted therapies offer a new level of selectivity and optimized efficacy.
Cis-targeting avoids immune cells that drive toxicity and suppress anti-tumor response.
DIFFERENTIATED, TRANSFORMATIVE
IMMUNOTHERAPIES
With our unique, modular and validated cis-targeting platform, we have the ability to create differentiated, transformational immunotherapies. The platform can be applied systematically, combining different immunomodulators and targeting antibodies to provide the appropriate signal to the intended immune effector cell type, resulting in improved therapeutic outcomes.
This powerful and versatile approach can also be tailored to activate different immune cell types to address multiple therapeutic indications.
CIS-TARGETING PLATFORM IS A PRODUCT ENGINE
The modularity enabled by our cis-targeting platform has allowed us to rapidly leverage our lead drug program into a pipeline of de-risked assets. Additional programs follow-on rapidly and are de-risked as one portion of the new molecule can be derived from an earlier program.
Clinical proof of mechanism demonstrated by initial data from an ongoing Phase 1a/1b trial of AB248 validates Asher’s platform of cis-targeted therapeutic candidates. Preclinical proof-of-concept has been established for eight molecules targeting five different immune agonists across four different cell types.
how we create cis-targeted immunotherapies
At Asher Bio, we have built a discovery platform to engineer cis-targeted immunotherapies based on the following steps:
DEFINE
desired biology
In this first step, we select an immunomodulator and interrogate the biology of each immune cell type to determine which cells promote the desired therapeutic benefit and which cells are responsible for side effects and antagonistic effects.
Level of activation of immune cell subtypes in response to immunomodulators
ENGINEER
cis-targeted immunotherapy
We attenuate the affinity of the immunomodulator for its receptor across all cell types. We fuse it with a targeting moiety that binds a specific target only found on the desired immune cell type. This avidity restores activity for only the targeted cell type.
OPTIMIZE
pharmacological profile
We optimize key parameters of our cis-targeted immunotherapy to create the desired pharmacological profile.
