Enhancing Immune Systems with Immunotherapy
Scientists at Network Immunology, a Vancouver based biotech company, have discovered a way of rebalancing and stabilizing an over-reactive adaptive immune system, long-term. They have achieved this with the administration of the company's proprietary immuno-therapeutic, AbstimX™.
In pre-clinical studies, AbstimX™ has been shown to treat a range of inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory colitis, inflammatory breast cancer, and allergic disease.
The AbstimX™ platform technology is based on the Nobel Prize winning immune network theory, which has been developed by Dr. Niels K. Jerne (Nobel Laureate), Dr. Geoffrey W. Hoffmann and Reginald M. Gorczynski, MD, PhD.
About Network Immunology
Network Immunology Inc. is a privately held Vancouver based biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapies for inflammatory diseases.
Network Immunology creates enormous lasting value through pioneering research in the field of immunology which leads to new product concepts, product development, and finally to the licensing and commercialization of those products and associated intellectual property. The company develops products for both companion animal and human health applications.
Mission
The mission of Network Immunology is to alleviate pain and discomfort resulting from chronic inflammatory diseases by safely, gradually and effectively, down-regulating the inflammatory response, long-term. The company is accomplishing this mission on a global scale through development towards commercial licensing and distribution of our proprietary immuno-therapeutic platform, AbstimX™.
Technology Overview
Network Theory of Adaptive Immunity
Similar to the way in which the brain is a network of neurons, that possesses a sense of self, and the ability to remember and learn from experience, the immune system is also a network of cells and antibodies, that possesses a sense of self, and the ability to remember and learn from experience.
The immune network theory states that the “recognizers” of the immune system (the lymphocytes and antibodies) not only recognize foreign particles, but also recognize and interact with each other, as parts of a network with memory. This has important implications for the medical issues of autoimmunity and inflammation.
Network interactions in the immune system have been written about in thousands of peer reviewed journals, however they are an aspect of the system that most of the field of immunology is not paying attention to currently, largely due to the IJ paradox of the early 1980s. This paradox was sufficiently central to network theory, that immunologists at the time left the network paradigm to focus on the details of the system.
Dr. Geoffrey W. Hoffmann was able to solve the IJ paradox, and published its resolution in a peer reviewed journal in 1994. However, by then, to most immunologists, immune network theory was little more than a paragraph in their university immunology textbooks - a forgotten paradigm of immunology. This has left the sub-field of examining the newtork interactions of the immune system, entirely over-looked.
A Short History of Immune Network Theory
The immune network theory emerged in the mid 1970’s. Later, in 1984, a Danish immunologist by the name of Dr. Niels Kaj Jerne, was awarded the Nobel Prize for his immune network hypothesis. He was the first to propose that the antibodies of the system not only recognized foreign antigens, but also recognized and interacted with each other, as part of a network.
Dr. Jerne had realized that, just as the neural network could remember, and learn from experience, so could the immune system, a network, of cells and antibodies, also remember and learn from experience. And just as the neural network possesses the ability to differentiate between self and other, so does the immune system possess this ability to distinguish between what is self, or part of the body, and what is foreign to the body.
However, in the early 1980s, confusion arose around a protein called IJ, which is part of the central regulating unit of the immune system in the context of network theory. This is to say that, within the network framework, IJ is a major part of the central regulating unit of the system.
Immunologists had mapped IJ to a precise point in the genome but they soon found that the gene to express IJ was missing from the sequence. This came to be known as the IJ paradox. This problem regarding IJ baffled immunologists at the time, to the extent that they threw out the baby with the bathwater. This is to say, they abandoned the whole theory - and a very large amount of data - with the paradox. They did this because of the significant confusion around IJ which, as a central component of the system, is crucial for the theory to make sense. Almost all immunologists from then onward, chose to shift their focus toward the details of the system, as opposed to developing this framework for understanding the system as a whole.
In contrast, Network Immunology’s founder, Dr. Geoffrey Hoffmann, was captivated by this fundamental riddle, and turned his focus towards resolving IJ. In 1994 he published the solution to the IJ paradox in a peer reviewed journal. However, by then, virtually the entire field of immunology had moved away from network theory, and the attempt to understand the larger picture of immune system regulation. They had moved on, to focus on the details of the system. Hoffmann, in contrast, continued to develop the immune network theory, applying his background in biophysics and mathematical modeling.
An extension to the theory eventually led to a novel technology for the modulation and stabilization of the immune system. Today, Network Immunology is the only company in the world, that represents the network theory of the immune system, and technologies emerging from it. Details of the symmetrical immune network theory can be found in the monograph Immune Network Theory by Geoffrey W. Hoffmann.
Platform Immunotherapy
Network Immunology fully owns intellectual property rights to AbstimX™, an immune system modulator technology and treatment.
In pre-clinical studies, AbstimX™ has been shown to effectively treat and/or prevent the development of a range of allergic and inflammatory autoimmune diseases, including:
• peanut allergy in canine
• egg allergy in mice
• inflammatory colitis in mice
• inflammatory breast cancer in mice
• organ transplant rejection in mice
There is a enormous potential for this therapy to treat many millions of human patients and companion animals that are suffering from chronic inflammatory illnesses.
The technology involves adding stability to the system, which effectively protects the organism against age-related degenerative inflammatory diseases. The therapy is delivered over a period of eight weeks, through a series of subcutaneous infusions into the bloodstream.
Investors
OVERVIEW:
-
Multi-billion dollar unmet market need for novel inflammatory disease therapies
-
Effective, broadly applicable therapy for inflammatory diseases
-
Outstanding team with experience in development and commercialization of multi-billion dollar sales revenue generating therapies
-
Strong intellectual property asset
REQUEST INVESTOR MATERIALS:
Prospective investors seeking to receive information on current investment opportunities and/or to request our peer-reviewed publications containing data from our pre-clinical studies, please submit your request with any related information via the contact form below.
Thank you for your interest in Network Immunology Inc.