HemoGenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HEMO) has developed a new generation of humanised mice which it believes could play a vital role in protecting people caught up in biological warfare.
Governments spend billions of dollars every year protecting their citizens from the threat of biological weapons, such as the release of pathogens and toxins including anthrax and smallpox.
READ: Hemogenyx reports encouragin new data for bone marrow transplant therapy
Hemogenyx thinks its new mouse model, called Advanced peripheral blood Hematopoietic Chimera (ApbHC), could potentially be used to help rapidly develop treatments against unknown human-specific pathogens.
ApbHC has “several advantages” over other mouse models, says Hemogenyx, including the absence of Graft versus Host disease – when the mouse rejects the transplanted tissue – which makes the use of certain cells impossible.
Cancer potential
Biodefense is a more extreme application for ApbHC, and Hemogenyx is keen to point out that the new mouse model could also be used to develop new cell therapies for cancer and the conditioning of patients for bone marrow transplantation.
Researchers have also shown that ApbHC can potentially be used for modelling autoimmune diseases such as Lupus, with a goal of developing new treatments for those diseases.
As with its Advanced Hematopoietic Chimeras (AHC), Hemogenyx expects ApbHC will be of “considerable interest” to drug developers, and the initial interest being shown is “promising”.
Boss ‘excited’ by ApbHC
“We are excited by the potential of the ApbHC, a new generation of our humanized mice,” said chief executive Vladislav Sandler.
“The ApbHC has allowed us to rapidly obtain in vivo data on the efficacy of our CDX antibodies against AML.
“We are actively developing and expanding the potential use of the ApbHC for disease modelling, the development of new therapeutics, and biodefense applications.
“Our ApbHC has also generated significant interest from third parties who also see its potential for disease modelling and drug development.”
Shares jumped 7.5% to 3.22p in early deals on Monday.