Phylogica enhances peptide screening capabilities

New enhancements to Phylogica’s (ASX:PYC) peptide drug discovery platform promise to overcome the difficulty of discovering sophisticated cell-penetrating peptides.

The company has developed and filed an international patent for a new component of its Phylomer peptide screening platform.

The enhancement is designed to identify peptides capable of penetrating cell membrane barriers and targeting and delivering their drug cargo to particular parts of the cell.

“The vast majority of known disease targets reside inside of cells, yet we can’t reach them with the next generation of molecular therapies because of the barriers presented by cell membranes,” said Phylogica CEO Dr Paul Watt.

“We are not aware of any other peptide discovery company that has overcome the challenge of identifying effective cell-penetrating peptides.”

He said Phylogica is already using the technology in collaboration with a pharmaceutical company to discover new peptide-drug conjugates and will explore new discovery partnerships.

The international patent claims filed for the enhancements cover techniques for capturing cell-penetrating peptides that can escape from endosomes from within the company’s Phylomer libraries; for detecting efficient delivery of drug cargoes to particular cell location; and for detecting activities of peptide drug conjugates.

Phylogica in March secured an Australian patent protecting its Phylomer peptide libraries as a composition of matter. A month later, the company was granted a European patent covering peptides within the libraries that target the AP-1 pathway to treat ischemic conditions.

Phylogica shares were trading 5.6% higher at $0.019 as of around 12.30 pm on Thursday.