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ARTICLE | Emerging Company Profile

Targeted phagocytosis

How Alexo's SIRPA variants could serve as universal adjuvants for cancer mAbs

July 25, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

Alexo Therapeutics Inc. is developing variants of signal regulatory protein alpha that antagonize CD47 to increase macrophage phagocytosis induced by anticancer antibodies. Using the variants alongside antibody therapeutics could avoid on-target phagocytosis of healthy cells observed with more advanced CD47-targeting agents.

CD47 is a cell surface protein that is widely expressed on both normal and cancer cells. It allows cells to avoid phagocytosis by interacting with signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPA) on macrophages. ...