ProtAffin: Gagging inflammation

Instead of pursuing the usual therapeutic approach of interrupting extracellular protein-protein interactions, ProtAffin Biotechnologie AG hopes to develop a new class of protein therapeutics that target carbohydrates found on pro-teoglycan co-receptors located in inflamed tissues. According to the company, the approach provides an alternative mechanism that could succeed in situations where antibodies have failed.

ProtAffin is using its CellJammer technology to engineer chemokines and other molecules to selectively bind specific glycosaminoglycans. GAGs are carbohydrates found on proteoglycans...