WashU team to develop novel Type 1 diabetes treatment
Kyle Apley; Cory Berkland; Peggy Kendall, MD, receive accelerator grant
Type 1 diabetes (T1D), one of the most common chronic diseases in children, is an autoimmune disease that destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, requiring lifelong daily management.
A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis plan to advance their work on a novel treatment for those at risk of T1D with a $250,000 grant from the Critical Path Institute’s Translational Therapeutics Accelerator. The funding, awarded to Kyle Apley, research assistant professor, and Cory Berkland, the Mark and Becky Ruhmann Levin Professor, both in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering; and to Peggy Kendall, MD, the Virginia Minnich Distinguished Professor and chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at WashU Medicine, will continue their work on a CD22 bidentate therapeutic designed for patients at risk to develop T1D.
In T1D, the body initiates an autoimmune response against insulin-producing cells in pancreatic islets. Autoreactive anti-insulin B lymphocytes (B cells) function as essential antigen presenting cells necessary for T cell activation and islet destruction. Apley said the new drug specifically targets autoreactive B cells for elimination to prevent T1D without harming the rest of the immune system, a novel approach compared with immunosuppressive drugs typically used for autoimmunity.
“We designed an insulin derivative equipped with a molecular ‘switch’ that subdues these insulin-specific B cells,” said Apley, who has been working on this project since 2020. “Specifically, insulin antigen targets autoreactive B cells, and the small molecule ‘switch’ engages CD22 to block autoimmune stimulation. We propose to develop our antigen-CD22L conjugate to treat prediabetic or new onset T1D patients positive for insulin autoantibodies.”
The funding will allow the team to manufacture and screen derivatives of antigen-CD22L compounds and to perform dose-ranging and preliminary toxicity studies in a preclinical model.
Apley and Berkland began this research while at the University of Kansas (KU), and KU has filed a patent application directed to the technology. The WashU Office of Technology Management and the KU Center for Technology Commercialization (KUCTC) are working together to manage protection and commercialization of the technology.”
