Vaccines

PMN311 | Amyloid-Beta Vaccine

Developing a Safe and Effective Alzheimer’s Vaccine

Through the strategic use of disease-associated epitopes identified through our proprietary discovery platform, we aim to develop a safe and effective vaccine to induce a specific immune response against toxic Aβ oligomers (AβOs). An AD vaccine capable of inducing an effective antibody response against pathogenic Aβ could be administered as a preventative measure to at-risk individuals to prevent the development of symptomatic disease or given therapeutically to diagnosed patients to inhibit the progression of AD. ProMIS is collaborating with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) of the University of Saskatchewan to conduct preclinical vaccine development.

PMN440 | Alpha-Synuclein Vaccine

α-Syn Program Key Features

Vaccination against pathogenic species of ASyn has the potential to protect against synucleinopathies.

Our technology platform has created vaccines with potentially greater selectivity for only toxic misfolded of α-Syn.

  • No binding to monomers
  • No binding to physiological tetramers
  • Binding to pathogenic oligomers/small soluble fibrils
  • Binding to native toxic α-Syn in PD/DLB brain extract
  • Little or no binding to insoluble fibrils (Lewy bodies)

Screening and Validation for PD Candidates

Identifying Highly Selective α-Syn Antibodies

Our proprietary computational platform was used to identify epitopes that are exclusively exposed on the surface of toxic misfolded species of α-Syn, in a shape (conformation) distinguishable from that of monomers, physiological tetramers, and insoluble fibrils (Lewy body/Lewy neurites).

These conformational epitopes were then used for immunization and generation of monoclonal antibodies that exhibit selective binding to the toxic forms of α-Syn, as demonstrated via several methods, including surface plasmon resonance, immunohistochemistry, and dot blot analysis.

Overcoming Hurdles Associated with Achieving α-Syn Molecular Selectivity

α-Syn proteins pose a difficult challenge for molecular species selectivity. There are six molecular species of α-Syn in total, two of which are physiologically important and should be avoided, and two that are toxic and should be targeted.

Only α-Syn antibodies generated using our proprietary discovery platform can selectively target the toxic oligomers and inhibit α-Syn propagation while leaving healthy, physiologic oligomers unaffected. Thanks to our unique platform, we have achieved these results with multiple antibodies, created with different conformational epitope predictions, thereby demonstrating the unrivaled power of our technology.

Posters & Publications

Our scientific expertise is backed by decades of research on protein misfolding diseases such as AD, ALS, and PD. We encourage you to visit our scientific library to learn more about our programs.

View Posters and Publications