Portfolio | Autoimmune

Striving to restore self-tolerance in autoimmune diseases
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Autoimmune Therapies

Autoimmunity addressed by ImmTOR™

The current standard of care for autoimmune diseases is broad immunosuppression, which is associated with side effects and leaves patients vulnerable to serious infection and maligancies. Our approach to autoimmune disease is designed to restore natural self-tolerance by administering ImmTOR with nanoparticles-encapsulated self-antigens and avoid the need for chronic and systemic immune suppression. 

A new targeted approach

ImmTORTM gives rise to antigen-specific immune tolerance.

There is a significant need for antigen-specific therapies that can induce immune tolerance without the need for chronic and systemic immune suppression. ImmTOR is designed to restore natural self-tolerance by co-administration with nanoparticle-encapsulated autoantigens.

ImmTOR™ could be ideally suited to address PBC

An ImmTORTM-based approach to treating primary biliary cholangitis (PBC)

PBC is an autoimmune disorder in which the body mistakenly attacks the bile ducts leading to liver damage. To address this autoimmune disease, Selecta intends to coadminister ImmTOR with PDC-E2, the autoantigen implicated in PBC. The PDC-E2 antigen will be encapsulated in nanoparticles to minimize the systemic exposure of the antigen to a patient’s immune system. Patients with PBC are desperately in need of a targeted, liver-directed approach to treating the root cause of the disorder.

ImmTORTM is ideally suited to address PBC

Tolerogenic liver
sinusoidal
endothelial cells

Hepatic
regulatory
t cells

serum liver enzyme
in concanavalin
a Liver inflammation model

PBC is a T-cell liver disease driven by a well-defined antigen. ImmTOR has been shown in preclinical studies to induce a strong tolerogenic environment in the liver. Co-administration of ImmTOR with PDC-E2, the autoantigen implicated in PBC, has the potential to restore immune tolerance in the liver to directly address the precise cause of the disease. In addition, ImmTOR shows hepatoprotective properties in liver injury models demonstrating its unique ability to potentially treat liver-specific disorders like PBC.

Partner with us

Learn more about partnership opportunities

Selecta licensed its Phase 3 clinical product candidate, SEL-212, in chronic refractory gout, to Sobi in mid 2020. Selecta has also partnered with leading gene therapy companies, including AskBio and Sarepta Therapeutics to evaluate the potential of ImmTOR in combination with AAV gene therapies.

Publications

Validated and peer-reviewed research

Our research is validated by a long track record of peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals in collaboration with our industry and scientific partners.

Posters & Presentations

Journey into gene therapies

ImmTOR has the potential to transform the field of gene therapies by reducing the severity of the body’s immune response to viral vectors and enabling repeat administrations.