Tregitope Applications

Tregitopes are a highly specialized means of suppressing immune responses and inflammation. Thus there may be a Tregitope application for many situations where there is an unwanted immune response. This includes immune reactions to foreign substances such as monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins, organ transplants and therapeutic vectors such as AAV; as well as autoimmune or auto-inflammatory responses such as diabetes, Chrohn’s disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and allergies. The regulatory effect of Tregitope administration has been shown to last as long as 26 weeks in preclinical in vivo studies. This means Tregitope treatments could have a long lasting effect without the need for frequent hospital visits.

  • Tregitope applications for Type 1 Diabetes
    Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes (T1D) is an organ-specific autoimmune disease, resulting from destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta-cells. Preliminary studies demonstrate that Tregitopes specifically induce natural Tregs and, when co-administered with an antigen, lead to expansion of antigen-specific regulatory T cells. Modulation of autoimmune responses to autologous epitopes by induction of antigen-specific tolerance may prevent ongoing beta-cell destruction, thus restoring the production of insulin.
  • Tregitope applications for Allergy 
    More than half of all U.S. citizens test positive to one or more allergens, and allergies are the 6th leading cause of chronic disease. T helper type 2 (Th2) effector cells represent the dominant T cell subset activated by allergens and contribute to the production of allergen-specific IgE antibodies involved in allergic hypersensitivity. Restoration of the natural, tolerant state to common environmental allergens from a Th2-skewed allergic response is the ultimate goal in allergen-specific immunotherapy. We are exploring the use of Tregitopes to modulate responses to allergens through adaptive tolerance induction as a form of treatment.
  • Tregitope applications for Protein Therapeutics
    Frequently, a therapeutic protein is found to induce an immune response either immediately or after multiple doses. In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that the immune response to an immunogenic protein can be suppressed when co-administered with Tregitope. Alternatively an immunogenic biopharmaceutical co-expressed with Tregitopes would promote tolerance to that protein. Working with our collaborators we have been able to show that Tregitopes can be successfully expressed in carrier proteins such as recombinant human serum albumin. Tregitope formulations could increase the safety and efficacy of existing and novel protein therapeutics.

Tregitope Publications

Tregitope Posters

EpiVax is currently licensing Tregitope under 1 year options + license agreements.  For more information on Tregitope and licensing opportunities please contact us here.