Our Science

Addressing unmet medical needs

Our clinical-stage program, ALTB-168, is a first-in-class antibody targeting a variety of autoimmune and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

R&D Update on AltruBio's Immune Checkpoint Enhancer Platform for Immunological Diseases

Our Scientific Approach

Regulation of T-cell homeostasis

ALTB-168 & 268: Agonistic antibodies with a unique mechanism of action targeting T cell homeostasis

Our first-generation inflammation drug candidate, ALTB-168, and more potent second-generation candidate, ALTB-268, are immune checkpoint agonist antibodies targeting PSGL-1/CD162. ALTB-168 has demonstrated signs of clinical efficacy in psoriasis (phase II), psoriatic arthritis (phase II), ulcerative colitis (phase II) and steroid/treatment refractory-acute GvHD patients (phase I).

The unique mechanism of action augments the natural regulation of T cell homeostasis that preferentially down-regulates late-stage chronically activated T cells without affecting resting T cells and early-activated T cells. Because pathogenic T cells underlying the inflammatory conditions are usually in a late-stage, chronically activated state, eliminating this population of cells can potentially result in controlling autoimmune inflammation associated with T cells, such as psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes and GvHD. Treatment with ALTB-168 and ALTB-268 could result in durable and long-term responses as the therapy is designed to target the pathogenic T cells underlying these inflammatory conditions rather than the inflammatory cytokines they produce. In addition, since resting T cells are not affected, normal immune defenses are not impacted.

ALTB-168 : Clinical-Stage Platform in Immunology

ALTB-168 has demonstrated signs of clinical efficacy in Psoriasis (phase II), Psoriatic Arthritis (phase II), Ulcerative Colitis (phase II) and steroid/treatment refractory-acute GvHD patients (phase I).

Pipeline

INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

AltruBio has built a differentiated pipeline of biologic therapies targeting diseases of inflammation with products at various stages of development.

Jan, 2025

ALTB-268: Inheriting the unique mechanism of action from ALTB-168, ALTB-268 is subtly designed as a tetravalent molecule to achieve better efficacy. From preclinical and phase 1 clinical studies ALTB-268 exhibits not only comparable safety profiles, but also improved potency in down-regulating chronic pathogenic T cells. Therefore, a lower dosage to obtain an equivalent efficacy in clinical is expected.

ALTB-168: ALTB-168 is a humanized therapeutic antibody with a unique mechanism of action, preferentially inducing the down regulation of late-stage, chronically activated T cells. This novel antibody effectively targets chronic pathogenic T cells while fully maintaining host defense, leading to durable clinical efficacy with a potential to reduce risks of adverse events such as infection and cancer. These two characteristics, which have been well demonstrated in our clinical studies, offer a sustainable competitive advantage over existing therapies.

ALTB-168 has demonstrated signs of clinical efficacy in Phase II clinical trials for T-cell mediated diseases such as psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ulcerative colitis. This innovative drug candidate has the potential to bring game-changing benefits to patients with many other T-cell mediated diseases. We have also completed a phase I study in patients who develop steroid/treatment-refractory acute graft versus host disease (SR/TR-GVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), as well as an ongoing clinical study in the front-line setting of acute GVHD.

Publications