Over the past half century, we have learned a great deal about how our bodies protect themselves from both external and internal threats. An improved understanding of the immune system’s role in defending us against these threats has led to the appreciation that the immune system is perhaps the most complex system in our bodies. Initial immune therapies, and currently used therapies including steroids, were entirely non-specific and as a result have both sub-optimal efficacy and significant toxicities. Administration of steroids to a patient suffering from asthma, inflammatory bowel disease or arthritis is analogous to shutting down the power grid to an entire city rather than just to a particular neighborhood where an electrical fire is burning. In recent years, we have begun to understand how the immune system activates or inhibits the immune system in particular ‘neighborhoods’ rather than simply turning the whole system on or off. TL1A and TNFR25 are two proteins that regulate this kind of fine control over the immune system, and these are the targets of Heat Biologics Inhibicor and Medicor technologies.
Inhibicor therapy is an antibody-based therapy that specifically targets the immune costimulatory molecule, TL1A. Unlike current therapies used to treat asthma or inflammatory bowel disease, Inhibicor disrupts the sequence of events that lead to symptoms before they even begin and is also capable of reversing the sequence if it has already been initiated prior to treatment. This is particularly important for these diseases because permanent organ damage can also occur before any symptoms appear. Thus, currently available therapies, while effective in many cases, do not prevent long-term organ damage in chronic asthmatics or patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Antibody-based therapies, like Inhibicor, also remain active in patients for several weeks to months after they are administered. Therefore, in contrast to oral or inhaler-based therapies, patients taking Inhibicor can have the comfort of being protected for a prolonged period of time after each treatment.
Inhibicor blocks the activity of TL1A, a molecule that acts as a trigger for autoimmune diseases including asthma, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis and arthritis. By blocking the trigger for these diseases, Inhibicor specifically blocks the development of these diseases in a manner that is fundamentally different from all available therapies. Heat Biologics scientists, as well as other scientists around the world have come to the same conclusions (see publications below), but only Heat is bringing this product to market.