Australian antibody development company Patrys (ASX:PAB) says it has completed initial production and characterisation of PAT-DX3, a full-sized, humanised antibody version of its dimerised antibody fragment PAT-DX1.
The company said this full-sized version is likely to have different pharmaceutical properties to PAT-DX1. It said this may provide opportunities for its use in additional clinical applications.
PAT-DX1 is the company's lead asset. It is an engineered version of the mouse lupus antibody 3E10. It has been miniaturised to contain just two copies of the binding domain of 3E10 and further modified to improve its binding properties.
PAT-DX1 has been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier, reduce tumour size and increase survival in multiple animal models of brain cancer, other cancers, and cancer metastases.
PAT-DX1 is also tumour-agnostic, meaning it can target different tumour types in the body, regardless of specific tumour antigens.
The company said the initial development and characterisation of PAT-DX3 has confirmed that, like PAT-DX1, it penetrates into cancer cell nuclei and binds to the DNA released from solid tumours.
The company said it intends to undertake testing in animal models following pharmacokinetic (PK) studies run in parallel with ongoing PK studies for PAT-DX1.
CEO and managing director, Dr James Campbell, said, “Patrys’ primary focus at this time is on the development of PAT-DX1 and getting it into the clinic as quickly as possible. However, as indicated in our recent Rights Issue documentation, the unique characteristics of our Deoxymab platform means it is likely to have much broader clinical utility.
"PAT-DX3 offers Patrys the scope to fully explore those opportunities as well as provide a more comprehensive offering to potential partners. Patrys believes that the larger size of PAT-DX3 may result in differences in its pharmaceutical properties (pharmacokinetics, half-life, tissue distribution and penetration) that could open up additional clinical opportunities for its Deoxymab platform. Patrys looks forward to reporting on the further development of PAT-DX3 over the coming months.”