CORE TECHNOLOGIES

Biosimilar therapeutic monoclonal Antibodies (mAb)

Chemotherapy, while killing cancer cells also damages healthy cells leading to severe side effects, such as the, nausea, vomiting, loss of hair and extreme fatigue. mAb-based treatment targets specifically cancer cells thus eliminating side effects and has been established as one of the most successful therapeutic strategies in the 20 years. Virocan has developed clones for biosimilar mAb for which either patent expired and soon to be expired. They are suitable for the treatment of cancers and immune system disorders like arthritis. Virocan developed clones for several other mAb ready for pre-clinical trials.

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy

Chemotherapy for cancers fail due to tumor-induced immunosuppression in patients. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technologies are designed to not only to mitigate general immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment but also redirecting of immune effector cells to recognition of cell surface tumor specific antigens and kill them. This has been a miraculous therapy for various blood cancers. We have developed new CAR T-cell technology for blood cancers and filed for Indian provisional patent. We are in the process of filing for international patent. We are looking for partners to bring the technology to clinical trials.

RNA interference (RNAi):

One of the major discoveries in the last decade, RNA interference (RNAi) constitutes an abundant and evolutionarily conserved class of post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. It includes small non-coding RNA molecules such as short interfering RNA (siRNA) and micro RNA (miRNA) which have emerged as critical regulators in the mammalian gene expression and hold the promise to selectively inhibit expression of disease causing genes. Recent advances have revealed profound functions for micro RNAs in numerous facets of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and obesity. Micro RNAs are currently recognized as regulators of expression of most genes; consequently, they play critical roles in a wide array of biological processes, including cell differentiation, proliferation, death, metabolism, and energy
homeostasis. The most important difference between micro RNA therapy and traditional drug therapy is that traditional drugs have specific cellular targets whereas micro RNAs modulate the entire functional network. The fact that miRNAs have numerous molecular targets increases the probability of non-specific targets. A detailed knowledge of their authentic gene targets, functions, and tissue distribution is necessary to employ RNAi technology for drug development. While some of the bioinformatically predicted targets turn out to be false, others are entirely overlooked. All Virocan targets are carefully validated. They become part of our pipeline of drugs only after establishment of proof of concept with tissue specific expression.

Recombinant Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors for gene therapy

Bioengineered rAAV vectors are promising for human gene therapy because of their excellent safety profile, including a modest frequency of integration, minimal generation of immune responses, and lack of association with human disease. We have used various serotypes of AAVfor not only for specific gene expression, RNAi but also for the generation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in immunotherapy protocols .