Business
Strategic collaboration with Karolinska Institutet
Strategic collaboration with Karolinska Institutet.
About this update from Scancell Holdings Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 7583R Scancell Holdings Plc 11 March 2016 \n\n11 March 2016\n \nScancell Holdings Plc\n(\"Scancell\" or the \"Company\")\n \nScancell embarks on strategic collaboration with world-leading research team at Karolinska Institutet\n \nCollaboration to further explore the role of citrullination in cancer, a key mechanism underpinning the Moditope® platform\n \n \nScancell Holdings plc, ('Scancell' or the 'Company') the developer of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, announces that it has embarked on a strategic research collaboration with scientists at the Rheumatology Unit at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, led by Professors Lars Klareskog and Vivianne Malmström. The collaboration will further explore the scientific and clinical role of citrullinated proteins in the treatment of cancer.\n \nScancell's Moditope® platform technology overcomes the immune suppression induced by tumours themselves, allowing activated T cells to seek out and kill tumour cells that would otherwise be hidden from the immune system. This is achieved by stimulating the production of CD4+ T cells using citrullinated tumour-associated peptide epitopes, which overcome self-tolerance and destroy tumour cells. \n \nThe teams of Professors Klareskog and Malmström have uncovered a central role for citrullinated proteins in the pathogenesis of the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis. Conversely, Scancell has discovered that citrullinated proteins are also targets on cancer cells and this underpins the use of citrullinated peptides in the Company's Moditope® cancer immunotherapy platform. \n \nThe groups of Professors Klareskog and Malmström perform world-leading research in the area of rheumatology and their work has been published in a number of leading academic journals, including Nature, Lancet, Arthritis & Rheumatism, Nature Medicine, Nature Genetics and Annual Review of Immunology.\n \nProfessor Lindy Durrant, Joint CEO of Scancell and Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy at Nottingham University, commented: \n \n\"Our research has previously shown that citrullinated proteins are involved in the control of tumour growth, which led us to the development of the Moditope® platform. The teams of professors Klareskog and Malmström have developed an understanding of the role ...