The AbLec™ Technology

[Antibody-Lectin Chimeras]

Introducing AbLec™

At the core of Valora Therapeutics' approach is our proprietary AbLec ™ (Antibody-Lectin chimera) platform. This innovative technology represents a fresh perspective on restoring proper immunological competency by precisely modulating the glyco-immune checkpoint, a critical control point in the body's immune response that remains largely underexplored for therapeutic development.

Advantages of the AbLec™ Platform

Precision

AbLecs are designed to target specific cell types, minimizing off-target effects.

Versatility

The modular nature of AbLecs allows for a wide range of potential applications.

Multi-Action

AbLecs offer a unique multifunctional therapeutic approach by combining cell targeting and immune modulation, with both stimulatory signaling of effector function, and modulation of inhibitory glyco-immune signaling, .

The Science Behind AbLec™

The glycocalyx is a gel-like coating of glycoproteins, proteoglycans, and glycolipids that coats the surface of many cells. These glycans form a crucial part of the 'sugar code,' a language that cells use to communicate with the immune system, by modulating lectin receptors, including Siglec receptors, expressed on immune cells. These glycan-lectin interactions modulate the innate and adaptive immune system and play a key role in self-tolerance.

In many diseases, including cancer and autoimmune disease, this glycan code becomes altered, leading to inappropriate immune responses that create persistent immunosupression in tumors, leading to immune cancer evasion, or defective immune control and hyperactivity of certain immune cells in autoimmune disease.

To restore proper glyco-immune checkpoint function in disease, it is critical to design molecules that normalize the glyco-immune signaling at the pathological cell, providing cell specificity and avoiding deregulation of physiologically relevant glycan-lectin interactions in healthy tissue.

In addition, given the large repertoire of glycans that can elicit immune control, many of them unknown, it is critical to design therapies that can engage and decoy any glycan ligand, know or unknown, to provide therapeutic benefits.

These principles guided the design of the AbLec™ platform.

How AbLec™ Works

AbLecs are engineered antibodies that combine two key components:

  1. Antibody Domain: Provides precise targeting to specific cells or tissues via Fab-antigen interactions and can elicit stimulatory signaling through the Fc domain.

  2. Lectin Domain: Binds to and decoys specific glycan structures on cell surfaces to reduce glyco-immune inhibitory signals or to activate stimulatory signals, depending on the lectin used and the cell targeted.

This unique design allows the generation of multi-specific AbLecs that can:

  1. Target: Precisely identify and bind to specific cells, such as cancer cells or activated immune cells.

  2. Modulate: Modulate the glyco-immune checkpoint signaling specifically at the target cell.

  3. Activate or Suppress: Enhance or dampen immune responses, depending on the AbLecs design.