Activating therapeutic
biology
Treating disease with
antibody drugs that
go beyond inhibiting
G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are membrane proteins that make cells respond to chemical signals like hormones.
Tuning GPCR activities up or down can harness our body's cellular activities to treat diseases. That's why 30% of all approved drugs target GPCRs.
300 of the 400 GPCRs remain undrugged. Many control important disease-treating biological processes, or can cause disease if dysfunctional.
Off-target toxicity
Small molecules or peptides often have off-target activity for structurally similar GPCRs, leading to side effects.
Metabolic toxicity
Small molecules can also be processed by the body to yield toxic metabolites.
Difficult to drug targets
Bioactive small molecules often cannot be found for some promising GPCRs, such as targets that normally respond to large protein signals like chemokines.
Naturally strong binders that inactivate
Nature evolved antibodies as our body's own drugs to selectively and potently inactivate pathogens.
Proven drugs, but rare for GPCRs
7 of the top 10-selling drugs are engineered antibodies.
However, out of 100 antibody drugs, only 2 target GPCRs.
Antibody drugs for GPCRs limited to blockers
It's hard enough finding a GPCR blocker. It's even harder to bind a GPCR in just the right way to activate it.
Of 100 approved antibody drugs, there is not a single antibody activator for a GPCR.
Abalone Bio's combines engineered living cells and data-driven computation to identify antibodies that functionally modulate the GPCR target - including activators.
