The granting of the patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office allows the biotechnology company to take the next step in R&D in the field of chemokines, a class of signalling proteins which play a critical role in the growth, differentiation and maturation of cells necessary for fighting infection, and stem cells, as well as tissue repair and regeneration.
Chemokines are normally released from a wide variety of cells in response to bacterial infection, viruses and agents that cause physical damage such as silica or the urate crystals that occur in gout.
They function mainly as chemoattractants for leukocytes, recruiting monocytes, neutrophils and other effector cells from the blood to sites of infection or damage.
They can be released by many different cell types and serve to guide cells involved in innate immunity and also the lymphocytes of the adaptive immune system. Some chemokines also have roles in the development of lymphocytes, migration and angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels).
The patent (US Patent 7,091,310 B2) covers chemokine analogs (peptide agonists and antagonists of chemokines) that are useful for the treatment of a variety of diseases and disorders.
"This new patent grant reinforces our overriding strategy to broaden the proprietary scope of our drug development platform while helping to further solidify our intellectual property position," said Dr. Hassan Salari, President and Chief Executive Officer of Chemokine Therapeutics,
Chemokine has selected five compounds as drug candidates, of which two are considered lead product candidates: CTCE-0214 for haematological support and CTCE-9908 for preventing cancer metastasis.
The three other product candidates are currently in the research and preclinical phase and will continue to be tested in animal models of peripheral vascular disease, infectious disease and stroke.