Title : Drug Delivery to the Brain using Engineered Protein Capsules (EnPCs®)
Abstract:
The blood brain barrier (BBB) is both a blessing and a curse: On the one hand, the tightly connected endothelial cells covering the cerebral blood vessels protect the brain from harmful large molecules. On the other hand, they are the obstacle to treat severe central nerve system (CNS) diseases. The limiting factor is not the absence of active compounds, but to facilitate their passage through the BBB. To achieve this goal, NEUWAY Pharma GmbH develops a next-generation, proprietary CNS drug delivery platform technology enabling drug transport across the BBB for a broad spectrum of therapeutic compounds, such as small molecules, nucleic acids (incl. mRNA or plasmid DNA, oligonucleotides) or proteins (incl. antibodies). The cargo molecules are encapsulated in the lumen of biotechnologically manufactured and purified Engineered Protein Capsules (EnPCs®), which are derived from the shell of the common John Cunningham Virus (JCV) maintaining its CNS tropism. The resulting stable protein nanoparticles are very well characterized, stable, protect the cargo molecules against detrimental environmental effects such as degradation and overcome two physiological barriers, i.e. BBB and cell membrane of target cells.
