Pipeline & Disease Focus

BNZ-γ (Gamma)

Cytokines are soluble factors produced by the cells of the immune system. Cytokines mediate various functions in these cells including growth, differentiation, and prevention or promotion of programmed cell death. A group of very important cytokines that share a common receptor named gc (CD132) are called gc-cytokines. They include 6 known cytokines (IL-2, -4, -7, -9, 15, and -21, collectively called as gc-family cytokines). These cytokines play a crucial role in the early development of T cells in the thymus as well as their homeostasis in the periphery. Moreover, recent studies have indicated that dysregulation of the expression of these cytokines as well as their dysfunction could lead to a wide variety of immunologic and hematopoietic diseases in humans. Therefore, blocking the action of these cytokines by virtue of disrupting the interaction between the cytokine and the gc-molecule would be a very effective method of clinical intervention in attempting a cure for these diseases.

Bioniz has designed first-in-class antagonist peptides that would inhibit the function of all or selective members of the gc-family cytokines. One of the unique merits of Bioniz therapeutic strategy is that the ability to choose to target each individual member of this family as well as to comprehensively target more than two or all members of this family. This feature should provide us a flexibility of strategy depending on the goal of the application.

For additional information please contact us.