Product name
Ten thousand fold enhanced uptake of a pharmacologically active agentSummary
Combined application of an agent carrying a target-cell specific ligand and a saponin results in high uptake and enhanced specificity.Organization name
ipal GmbHProfile
One of the most significant problems in tumor therapy is the incomplete removal of tumors by local treatment, since a complete and lasting tumor remission by chemotherapy or radiation therapy works only for a few tumor entities. Therefore, a promising approach to solve this problem is an immunological therapy by which a pharmacologically active agent is applied to a patient with preferable high tumorspecificity.
However, quite frequently, one is not able to achieve sufficiently large concentrations of the pharmacologically active agent at the intended site of action, either because the agent never reaches the site in the first place or is metabolized too quickly without being able to exert its action.
One way of approaching this problem in the past has been to combine the pharmacologically agent with a target specific component so as to increase the likelihood of the agent reaching the target.
Advantages
By combining the application of pharmacologically active agents (such as cytotoxins in the case of tumor therapy, e. g. OntakTM) carrying target-cell specific ligands with a saponin, the uptake of the agent can be enhanced more than ten thousand fold. Due to this specific enhancement, the total concentration of the agent can be reduced by a comparable factor still achieving the desired effects towards e. g. tumor cells. Severe side-effects, however, such as cytotoxicity towards benign cells, are thereby suppressed. Target cell specific ligands can be covalently coupled or non-covalently associated to the pharmacologically active agent or can be expressed as a fusion protein with the agent. Beside the application in tumor therapy, a more general approach can be anticipated regarding any therapy in which difficulties in transferring an agent into a specific compartment exist (e. g. treatment of inflammatory diseases by cell-specific inhibition of inflammatory mediators).
European and PCT applications have been filed.
The technology was developed at the Charité Universitätsmedizin (Berlin/Germany) and is offered by Ipal.
ipal GmbH
Marcel Tilmann
Project Leader
marcel.tilmann(at)ipal.de
About IPAL
The ipal GmbH patent agency assesses and markets the inventions of scientists in the area of Life Sciences and Physics & Engineering from Charité-Universitätsmedizin (University Medicine), Robert Koch Institute, Deutsches Herzzentrum (German Heart Institute), Bundesanstalt für Materialprüfung (BAM - Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing), the Zuse Institute as well as the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Langen and the Jacobs University Bremen. IPAL provides all of the services necessary - from the assessment of patentable technologies to a comprehensive patent protection all the way to the evaluation of sales returns potentials on the market and successful commercialisation through the use of licensing agreements.
Description File
04047_saponin.pdf
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