The Promis Neurosciences team just published this white paper about ALS and Alzheimer's. We believe it highlights the importance of the novel target (epitope) patent filed by the company on November 9th.
How many precision therapeutics are needed to treat a significant portion of patients with ALS and Alzheimer’s disease?
ALS and misfolded SOD1
ProMIS has identified and patented (genus patent in USA), or has patents pending around the world, the epitope sites on misfolded SOD1 for ALS. SOD1 is 153 amino acids in length; the total number of epitopes, discovered using our proprietary methodology, on the misfolded forms of SOD1 is 8, of which two are not "active".
Therefore, we anticipate at most 6 precision therapeutic antibodies would be needed to cover ALS patients whose disease is related to misfolded SOD1.
We are actively seeking pharma collaboration to exploit this opportunity in ALS.
Alzheimer's and misfolded beta Amyloid
Beta Amyloid, containing 43 amino acids, is a third the length of SOD1 and it too can only misfold in a limited number of ways. Using both ProMISTM and Collective Coordinates, the science team at ProMIS Neurosciences is zeroing in on identifying the maximum number of epitopes on misfolded beta Amyloid. Using these proprietary techniques our science team anticipates a total of about 8 different epitopes on misfolded strains of beta Amyloid, the first of which was submitted for patent protection on Nov.9, 2015 (and announced on Nov. 12, 2015). Having located the exact site of this first epitope, our science team is now identifying the exact location of each of the remaining seven epitopes, which upon confirmation shall also be submitted for patent protection.
Accordingly, it is anticipated that no more than 8 different therapeutic antibodies will be needed to treat the majority of Alzheimer's patients whose disease is related to misfolded beta Amyloid. In fact, we are reasonably confident the number of different precision therapeutics needed may be less than this as interestingly, the first epitope submitted for patent on Nov. 9th is common to at least two different misfolded strains of beta Amyloid.
Of interest: Promis Neurosciences Investment Thesis.
Michael Bigger. Follow me on Twitter and StockTwits.