Abata Therapeutics, a company focused on translating the biology of regulatory T cells (Tregs) into transformational medicines for patients living with severe autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, announced its second development candidate, ABA-201, which has the potential to be a disease-modifying Treg cell therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) who have remaining beta (β) cell function.
“The team has been incredibly successful building out our Treg cell therapy discovery engine, generating in only two years, two distinct therapeutic candidates for the treatment of two serious autoimmune diseases with high unmet need,” said Samantha Singer, M.S., M.B.A., president and chief executive officer of Abata. “We are rapidly developing ABA-201 for T1D and expect to begin clinical studies in 2025. This success builds on the scientific and operational infrastructure of our lead program, ABA-101, which is being developed to treat progressive multiple sclerosis and will enter clinical studies next year. We’re also thrilled to announce the extension of our partnership with ElevateBio. The successful partnership on our lead program affords the advantage of a ‘plug-and-play’ process that will greatly accelerate the advancement of the ABA-201 program.”
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The hypothesis for ABA-201 as a Treg treatment for T1D is firmly rooted in the scientific literature. Results from preclinical models of insulitis, such as the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse, and clinical trials testing either immunomodulators or polyclonal Tregs in patients with at-risk or new-onset T1D, reinforce the possibility that autoantigen-specific Tregs can have a highly potent therapeutic effect in T1D. Additional non-clinical studies have established the role of Tregs in suppressing β-cell injury, a further potential benefit of the approach.
“ABA-201 is a Treg cell therapy that uses a TCR to target the pancreas and draining lymph nodes in patients with T1D to limit ongoing β-cell destruction and preserve residual β-cell mass, with the added potential to promote repair of damaged tissue and establish long-lived tissue residency. Suppressing T cell function has been shown to delay T1D onset. However, no therapeutic exists to truly halt the autoimmunity that drives T1D and durably recalibrate the immune response. We believe our targeted approach to suppressing pancreatic islet-associated inflammation could offer significant and long-lasting clinical benefit to patients,” said Leonard Dragone, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer of Abata. “This second program expands the scope of our pioneering Treg cell-based approach to patients with T1D. As someone who has spent much of my career caring for patients and working to treat autoimmune diseases, I’m truly excited to see what these candidates can do for patients.”
SOURCE: Businesswire