Anticalins Developed Against Protein Targets

Researchers have succeeded in generating multiple novel anticalins against more than six commercially relevant protein targets, demonstrating their potential for becoming a leading class of antibody-like therapeutics. Anticalins are engineered, antibody-like proteins derived from natural lipocalins as a scaffold.

The anticalins evidenced picomolar affinity against the targets without requiring any further maturation. In addition, the first acute toxicity studies in mice revealed a good safety profile. The anticalins were generated by researchers at Pieris Proteolab AG (Freising, Germany; www.pieris.biz) using the company's drug discovery engine. Pieris notes that the anticalins can be produced in large quantities in Escherichia coli and thus offer a key advantage compared to the high cost of goods and the complex manufacturing of humanized monoclonal antibodies.

The company intends to build a large and diverse product portfolio both through developing its internal proprietary products and through collaborative arrangements with other companies. For this purpose, Pieris has generated the Theracalin library, which contains more than 10 billion unique anticalins derived from a fully human lipocalin scaffold.

"These exciting results form the basis of our business strategy to build a unique pipeline of innovative antibody-like compounds against well-validated biological targets in order to decrease the inherent risk of product development,” said Martin Pvhlchen, Ph.D., CEO of Pieris.




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