Monopar, NorthStar file provisional patent for development, use of RITs
Monopar Therapeutics (MNPR) and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes announced that a provisional patent application entitled “Precision Radioimmunotherapeutic Targeting of the Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor for Treatment of Severe COVID-19 Disease” has been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
This application covers novel compositions and uses of cytotoxic radioisotopes attached to antibodies that bind to uPAR, thereby creating precision targeted radiotherapeutics for the treatment of severe COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
Advanced COVID-19 patients frequently develop severe, life-threatening, pulmonary inflammation as a result of a viral induced cytokine storm.
The development of this cytokine storm is associated with a high rate of mortality in severe COVID-19 patients, even with oxygen support and mechanical ventilation.
A severe immune reaction in which the body releases too many cytokines into the blood too quickly. Cytokines play an important role in normal immune responses, but having a large amount of them released in the body all at once can be harmful. A cytokine storm can occur as a result of an infection, autoimmune condition, or other disease. It may also occur after treatment with some types of immunotherapy.
Signs and symptoms include high fever, inflammation (redness and swelling), and severe fatigue and nausea. Sometimes, a cytokine storm may be severe or life threatening and lead to multiple organ failure. Also called hypercytokinemia.
uPRITs have been designed with the goal of selectively destroying the aberrantly activated white blood cells responsible for causing the cytokine storm.
If successful, healthy tissue would be spared in the process as the uPAR target is primarily only present on this unique class of white blood cells and not in healthy tissue.
The co-inventors of the provisional patent application are James Harvey, Chief Scientific Officer of NorthStar, and Andrew P. Mazar, Chief Scientific Officer of Monopar.
If granted, the patent would offer exclusivity to Monopar and NorthStar for the development and potential use of uPRITs in the treatment of severe COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
This provisional patent application leverages the therapeutic radioisotope expertise of NorthStar and the translational expertise of Monopar to create a novel, targeted radioimmunotherapeutic.
Radioimmunotherapy uses an antibody labeled with a radionuclide to deliver cytotoxic radiation to a target cell. In cancer therapy, an antibody with specificity for a tumor-associated antigen is used to deliver a lethal dose of radiation to the tumor cells.
On June 16, 2020, Monopar and NorthStar announced a 50/50 collaboration to couple Monopar’s MNPR-101 uPAR targeting monoclonal antibody to a therapeutic radioisotope provided by NorthStar.
MNPR closed at $6.91.
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