Nautilus/Creabilis accord reaches milestone

Nautilus Biotech SA of France and Italy's Creabilis Therapeutics SpA say they have shown increased biological activity and resistance to proteolysis in vitro of the High Mobility Group Box One (HMGB1) Box A protein, an important technical milestone in their collaboration to identify a potential candidate drug for the treatment of RAGE- (Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products) and HMGB1-related pathologies, which include hepatitis B, rheumatoid arthritis, melanoma and sepsis.

HMGB1 is an abundant nuclear and cytoplasmic protein present in mammalian cells which, when released, is known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of several diseases.

Nautilus and Creabilis entered into the collaboration in September 2004, with the aim of developing a drugable variant of native HMBG1 Box A with improved PK/PD characteristics to be used as a direct antagonist of HMGB1 to treat related pathologies including hepatitis B, rheumatoid arthritis, SLE, melanoma, sepsis and multiple sclerosis and/or as inhibitor of RAGE to treat diabetes complications and inflammatory diseases. Creabilis is now testing molecules in vivo and plans to select the lead candidate for preclinical development in first-quarter 2007.