The platform continues to strengthen Compugen's capabilities in the field of medicinal peptides
Last Thursday, Compugen announced the development and proof of feasibility of a new discovery platform (Viral Peptides Discovery Platform) designed to discover viral peptides for medicinal use against inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Compugen also announced that the viral peptide discovery platform has led to the discovery of two new peptides that have been shown in laboratory experiments to inhibit inflammatory responses.
Yossi Cohen, DM VP of Research and Development at Compiogen, said, "This is the third discovery platform we have developed for medicinal peptides and is added to the platforms for the discovery of peptides that activate GPCR type receptors and for the discovery of peptides that block protein structures associated with diseases (DAC) that we announced previously. Each of these three discovery platforms is based on a fundamentally different discovery method and illustrates our focus and growing capacity in this important branch of drug discovery."
The engine of the discovery platform for viral peptides is based on the idea that the virus learns how to neutralize the human immune system. The platform breeds with the help of sophisticated algorithms and computational tools, predicting a large number of natural peptides, which viruses have the potential to produce. And from these, those with properties that suggest anti-inflammatory activity are selected. The feasibility of this platform was proven in a functional experiment in which several peptides were tested on cells of the immune system. Two of the tested peptides showed an inhibition in the secretion of various cytokines and chemokines, which suggests an anti-inflammatory activity
The platform for the discovery of peptides for GPCR receptors previously announced by the company and which forms the basis of the collaboration with the MERCK company, relies on computational learning algorithms that predict peptides capable of activating GPCR receptors. Using completely different prediction and selection methodologies, the DAC platform discovers peptides that prevent proteins from adopting a disease-related XNUMXD structure.
Alex Kotzer, President and CEO of Compugen said "This is the tenth discovery platform we have developed for the discovery of drugs and diagnostic markers. We are satisfied with the accelerated progress in the discovery capabilities we have developed and are confident in their significant commercial potential and the product candidates discovered through them."
