SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Applied Molecular Transport Inc. (AMT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced the first publication describing its novel technology platform to actively transport oral biologic therapeutics across the epithelial barrier of the intestine in the January issue of Tissue Barriersi. The publication highlights AMT’s proprietary technology that leverages existing natural cellular trafficking pathways to facilitate the active transport of proteins across epithelial cells of the intestine, thus potentially solving one of the significant barriers for drug developers, oral administration of biologic therapeutics.
“We are excited to be at the forefront of what we believe is a revolutionary approach with large molecule therapeutics, biologic products that can be given orally with potentially improved efficacy and safety profiles,” said Tahir Mahmood, Ph.D., chief executive officer and co-founder of AMT. “We believe our technology will fuel a broad pipeline of transformational biologic therapeutics. We further believe the capacity of the system is quite impressive, enabling us to design and develop oral biologic therapeutic modalities such as peptides, proteins, full-length antibodies, antibody fragments and RNA therapeutic products.”
Randall Mrsny, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and co-founder of AMT added, “The epithelium of the intestinal tissue is designed to keep foreign substances out of the body. AMT’s technology skillfully leverages natural pathways and we believe it is truly an elegant solution to the development of oral biologic therapeutics, which to date have been administered systemically.”
The core of AMT’s technology is based on the targeting and translocation capabilities of the protein cholix, which is secreted by Vibrio cholerae and through an evolutionary process is capable of translocating across the epithelial barrier of the intestine. The Tissue Barriers publication highlights AMT’s identification of the protein sequences along the cholix molecule responsible for targeting receptors on lumenal side of epithelial cells, translocation across the intestinal epithelial barrier, and the subsequent deposition in the intestinal tissue or systemic circulation. One key differentiator of this approach is the active, receptor mediated process using the cell’s own machinery to transport materials.
About Applied Molecular Transport Inc.
Applied Molecular Transport Inc. (AMT) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary technology platform to design and develop a pipeline of novel oral biologic product candidates to treat autoimmune, inflammatory, metabolic, and other diseases. AMT’s proprietary technology platform allows it to exploit existing natural cellular trafficking pathways to facilitate the active transport of therapeutic payloads across the intestinal epithelium barrier. Active transport is an efficient mechanism that uses the cell’s own machinery to transport materials across the IE barrier. AMT believes that its ability to exploit this mechanism is a key differentiator of its approach. AMT is developing oral biologic product candidates in patient-friendly tablet and capsule forms that are designed for either targeting local GI tissue or entering systemic circulation to precisely address the relevant biology of a disease. AMT is building a portfolio of oral product candidates based on its technology platform including its lead product candidate, AMT-101, an oral GI-selective IL-10 that is currently in a Phase 1b clinical trial for UC. AMT plans to initiate multiple Phase 2 clinical trials of AMT-101 in UC and related inflammatory indications in 2020. AMT’s technology platform enables it to design and develop various oral biologic therapeutic modalities, such as peptides, proteins, full-length antibodies, antibody fragments, and RNA therapeutics, with potentially significant advantages over existing marketed and development-stage drugs. To learn more, please visit www.appliedmt.com.
Contacts:
Sylvia Wheeler
Principal, Wheelhouse Life Science Advisors
swheeler@wheelhouselsa.com
Alexandra Santos
Senior Partner, Wheelhouse Life Science Advisors
asantos@wheelhouselsa.com
__________________________
i Taverner, A., MacKay, J., Laurent, F., Hunter, T., Liu, K., Mangat, K., Song, L., Seto, E., Postlethwaite, S., Alam, A., Chandalia, A., Seung, M., Saberi, M., Feng, W., & Mrsny, R. J., (2020). Cholix protein domain I functions as a carrier element for efficient apical to basal epithelial transcytosis. Tissue Barriers, 3(4). doi: 10.1080/21688370.2019.1710429