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ARTICLE | Emerging Company Profile

Autoimmunity alternative

Why Step Pharma thinks CTPS1 could become a hot autoimmune target

February 16, 2017 1:03 AM UTC

Inhibiting the nucleotide biosynthetic pathway in autoimmune diseases is one way to avoid the risks of broad immunosuppression, but the marketed compounds have serious side effects of their own. Step Pharma is pursuing a safer alternative by going after a target on the pathway, CTPS1, that is up-regulated only on active immune cells.

CTPS1 converts uridine 5’-triphosphate (UTP) to cytidine 5’-triphosphate (CTP), a step required to create DNA and RNA during cellular proliferation. Although the enzyme’s role in nucleotide biosynthesis has been long known, a 2014 Nature paper from Step’s scientific founders Alain Fischer and Sylvain Latour was the first to report its role in immune modulation. ...

BCIQ Company Profiles

Step Pharma S.A.S.

BCIQ Target Profiles

CTP synthase 1 (CTPS1)