BIND Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing targeted and programmable therapeutics called Accurins, announced a research collaboration with Affilogic, a privately held biotechnology company developing affinity proteins called Nanofitins that selectively bind and interact with identified targets. Under terms of the collaboration, BIND will utilise Nanofitins as targeting ligand components for Accurins designed to bind immuno-oncology targets.

Upon achievement of proof-of-concept, BIND anticipates expanding the collaboration to develop Accurins that incorporate unique combinations of immuno-oncology targeting ligands and new classes of payloads, including oligonucleotides and molecularly targeted therapies.

"Targeting ligand collaborations are an important part of our strategy to develop innovative medicines and this collaboration provides us with access to targeting ligands that are key modulators of anti-tumour immunity," said Jonathan Yingling, Ph.D., chief scientific officer, BIND Therapeutics. "The modular nature of our platform, including the ability to utilize targeting ligands that elicit a biological response and enhance disease tissue accumulation, will potentially allow us to develop Accurins that cause tumour cell death and/or modulate the tumor microenvironment as a way to maximise clinical benefit for patients."

Accurins are polymeric nanoparticles that encapsulate and control the release of therapeutic payloads with diverse physical and chemical properties, including highly charged payloads such as oligonucleotides and molecularly targeted therapies that have previously been difficult to formulate in a nanoparticle. Additionally, the surface of Accurins can be functionalized with a variety of biologically active ligands, potentially with multiple types of ligands on the same particle. BIND's collaboration with Affilogic is intended to investigate the use of Nanofitins protein ligands that bind to important immune regulators.

"We are excited about our collaboration with BIND Therapeutics and believe our Nanofitin targeting ligands can play an important role in BIND's innovative medicine strategy," said Olivier Kitten, chief executive officer, Affilogic. "BIND's Accurins platform has proven very effective at encapsulating and controlling the release kinetics of a wide variety of therapeutic payloads. When combined with our ability to specifically tailor Nanofitins to target important immune-oncology checkpoints, we believe this collaboration could lead to the discovery and development of truly innovative therapeutics."

This early research collaboration is not expected to have a material financial impact on BIND Therapeutics. Additional terms of the collaboration have not been disclosed.

Accurins are proprietary polymeric nanoparticles that are engineered to target specific cells and tissues in the body at sites of disease. Accurins have the potential to achieve therapeutic outcomes not currently possible with conventional treatment modalities. We are developing Accurins with three different therapeutic objectives, both through internal research programs and with collaborators:

Innovative medicines: Designing new therapeutic approaches by combining novel targeting methods and new classes of therapeutic payloads.

Enabling potent pathway inhibitors: Enabling greater inhibition of important cellular pathways where that level of inhibition has been unachievable due to off target toxicity.

Differentiated profile with approved drugs: Improving upon safety and efficacy with previously approved chemotherapeutic agents.

Accurins can be engineered for multiple therapeutic applications and have the potential to integrate numerous payloads, including highly potent drugs with mechanism-based toxicities that limit therapeutic benefit, DNA, RNA, proteins and immunotherapy agents. This attribute enables Accurins to target multiple diseases, including cancer, inflammatory, vascular, and infectious disease.

Nanofitins are small affinity proteins that can be easily conjugated to other moieties (small molecule, biologics, nanoparticles) by genetic fusion or standard chemistry (regioselective conjugation). This enables to consider a Nanofitin not only as a neutralizing agent but also as a vector to increase target-specificity and enable cellular uptake. Nanofitins demonstrate many small molecule-like attributes such as a very small size (20 times smaller than a monoclonal antibody), an extreme robustness and a better tissue penetration. Deriving from a naturally hyperstable scaffold, Nanofitins® are resistant to temperature and pH, are spontaneously refolding and stable to proteases. Nanofitins are produced by simple, scaleable, GMP- compliant bacterial fermentation at very attractive costs or by chemical synthesis.

Affilogic designs and develops Nanofitins through early-stage collaborations, as well as a proprietary portfolio.