© 2024 Peel Therapeutics | All rights reserved |
The Peel Pipeline
Peel’s pipeline targets high unmet clinical need areas in which patients face limited or no viable treatment options in oncology and immune diseases. We built Darwin.AI™, our proprietary discovery engine, to identify drug targets based on 100 million years of disease resistance across evolution. We are selective and engineer evolutionary medicines for radical impact, ensuring each drug has the potential to have a staggering outcome for patients across efficacy and safety.
Program
Indication(s)
Discovery
IND-Enabling
Clinical
Phase I
Phase II
Phase III
Oncology
Peel-224
PEGylated TOP1 inhibitor
Solid tumors
EP53 Lipid Nanoparticles
Elephant p53 loaded lipid nanoparticles
Solid tumors
Melittin
Integrin-targeted honeybee toxin
Solid tumors
Immunology
NET Inhibitors
Evolutionary targets that block neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs)
Acute and Chronic Inflammation
Molecules in nature
PEEL-224 is a nanocarrier linked to 4 small molecules developed for the treatment of cancer. The active molecule of PEEL-224 derives from camptothecin, a naturally occurring compound found in the Chinese Happy Tree thought to have evolved as a plant defense mechanism.
Camptothecin and its derivatives inhibit topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) which results in DNA breaks, effectively killing dividing cells. By engineering the natural molecule and conjugating it with a synthetic polymer, PEEL-224 is designed to improve efficacy while limiting toxicity.
Impact for patients
The robust preclinical data gathered to date has been extremely promising, showing that PEEL-224 has a sustained complete response in the most aggressive solid tumors for more than six months.
The molecular structure of Peel’s drug prevents its efflux from cancer cells through the ABCG2 multidrug transporter pump, meaning tumors are less likely to become resistant to PEEL-224 treatment and this drug overcomes irinotecan resistance.
The peel-224 manufacturing process is optimized, scaled for the clinic and has advanced rapidly to patients. Our first clinical trial for peel-224 has been initiated.
Molecules in nature
TP53 is a tumor suppressor gene often referred to as the “Guardian of the Genome.”
TP53 plays an essential role in destroying cancerous tissues, but is often turned off in the majority of human cancers. While humans have two copies of this gene, elephants are shown to have 40 copies of EP53 (elephant p53) – a scientific discovery published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by Peel co-founder Dr. Joshua Schiffman and his collaborators, some of whom are currently employed at Peel.
Impact for patients
For effective EP53 drug delivery, we are harnessing a nanotechnology that enables potent, enhanced delivery of the payload while limiting toxicity. This type of drug delivery modality has been pioneered by Peel co-founder Dr. Avi Schroeder, an internationally recognized expert in nanotechnology.
We are currently evaluating our EP53 nanoparticles in rigorous preclinical studies, with promising results.
Molecules in nature
Melittin is the most common toxin found in the venom of the European honeybee (Apis mellifera). When bee venom is injected into the body from a bee sting, the melittin causes massive rupture of red blood cells – a process called hemolysis. Melittin is the major pain producing substance found in bee venom. Melittin causes destruction of cells by forming pores on the surface of cells. These melittin-induced holes force the cells to burst open and release their contents.
Impact for patients
We have engineered melittin to be delivered directly to tumors by targeting integrin. The integrin trans-membrane protein is overly expressed on the surface of tumor cells and in the tumor microenvironment (TME) that surrounds aggressive cancers. Instead of killing red blood cells, our melittin will be brought directly to tumor cells to trigger cancer cell death. Still in development, Peel’s integrin targeting-melittin will kill tumor cells and also enhance other cancer treatments.
We are preparing for repeat nonclinical testing of integrin-targeting melittin to validate initial findings.
FIRST-IN-CLASS NET TARGETS
Using our proprietary Darwin.AI™ discovery engine, we are identifying and testing first-in-class targets to block NETs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and immune-triggered thrombosis.
Our targets originate from different animal species that have evolved the ability to naturally block NETs throughout their lifecycle. This evolutionary mechanism provides an important mechanism validated over hundreds of millions of years to avoid an overwhelming immune response. Our Peel scientists and drug developers are working together to move these exciting new targets for NET inhibition into discovery testing.
NETs are sticky webs of DNA released from neutrophils and contribute to many immune related diseases including inflammation, thrombosis, and fibrosis.
Impact for patients
Our NET inhibitors are being designed to block the amplified immune response of neutrophils that lead to organ and vascular damage in many human diseases such as sepsis, ARDS, stroke, thrombosis, asthma, diabetes, kidney failure, myocardial infarction and inflammation, and even COVID-19.
WE ARE RAPIDLY SELECTING AND EXPLORING THE NET INHIBITORY POTENTIAL OF OUR NET TARGETS.
THE PEEL TEAM IS UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO SUCCEED, WITH DARWIN.AI™ AND MORE THAN 100 MILLION YEARS OF TARGET DISCOVERY.
© 2024 Peel Therapeutics | All rights reserved |