Immunotherapy to Fight Infections and Inflammation

AyuVis Research, Inc. is a preclinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel multi functional small molecules which boost the body’s natural ability to fight disorders associated with inflammation, immunomodulation, and microbial infection.

A New Generation of Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is commonly defined as “the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies.”

The first generation immunotherapies were developed in the 1990s to suppress the adaptive immune system in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis. In the last ten years, a second generation of immunotherapies were developed to activate the adaptive immune system to target cancer cells and attack them.

Both efforts focused on treatment of chronic diseases and rely largely on complex biological molecules that require repeated treatments, over months or years, to achieve and maintain therapeutic benefits. In the case of the immune suppressive therapies there can be serious, even life threatening, side effects.

AyuVis is developing a new, third generation of immunotherapies.

These small molecule drugs work through the innate immune system, to treat both acute and chronic, life threatening, inflammatory and infectious conditions.

AyuVis compounds stimulate macrophages to control inflammation and infection.

The advantage of targeting the innate immune system is two- fold.

First, white blood cells (PBMCs), the foundation of the innate immune system, are constantly in circulation ready to rapidly reach the site of injury or infection
Second, our research shows AyuVis compounds can rapidly activate these cells to control inflammation from injury or infection, fight pathogenic microbes and promote healing

AyuVis compounds are designed to take advantage of these characteristics by stimulating PBMCs to control runaway inflammation or infection and prevent accompanying tissue damage. Unlike the previous generations of immunotherapy, AyuVis compounds neither activate nor suppress the body’s adaptive immune response but rather work through the innate immune system, converting PBMCs into macrophages in a new, alternative therapeutic state.

While these therapeutic actions and characteristics are desirable in many disease areas, AyuVis is focusing its efforts on acute respiratory diseases and related conditions.