The startup develops disease-modifying immunotherapies that utilize antibodies to inhibit immune checkpoint molecules, promoting a neuroprotective immunological response against neurodegenerative proteinopathy. This approach enables clinicians to effectively treat Alzheimer's disease and dementia by targeting the underlying immune mechanisms involved in these disorders.
Funding
$5M raised to dateRaised to date based on public sources. This may differ from the amount the company actually raised and is based only on what is publicly available on the internet.
Founders
Product
Problem
Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's face challenges due to their complexity, long asymptomatic periods, and the historical view of the brain as an immune-privileged site, limiting treatment approaches. Traditional treatments primarily target the central nervous system (CNS), potentially overlooking the role of the peripheral immune system in brain maintenance and repair.
Solution
ImmunoBrain is developing immunotherapies for neurological disorders by leveraging the body’s peripheral immune system to mitigate brain pathology. Their lead program, IBC-Ab002, is a fully human anti-PD-L1 antibody designed to modulate the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint pathway for Alzheimer’s disease therapy. This approach aims to enhance the immune system’s ability to clear pathogenic factors in the brain by actively recruiting immune cells, reducing neuroinflammation, removing misfolded proteins, and supporting neuronal rescue and tissue repair. Preclinical studies have demonstrated improvements in cognitive performance in amyloid and tau pathology models.
Target Audience
The primary target audience includes patients with early Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, as well as clinicians and researchers focused on developing novel immunotherapies for these disorders.
Features
- IBC-Ab002: A fully human therapeutic antibody with high affinity for PD-L1 blockade.
- Fc modifications enable fast clearance from circulation.
- Designed to induce long-lasting beneficial changes in the CNS with short peripheral exposures.
- Aims to simultaneously address amyloid pathology, tau pathologies, neuroinflammation, neuronal loss, and cognitive decline.
- Ongoing Phase 1b clinical trial (IBC-01-01) evaluating safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and exploratory efficacy markers in early Alzheimer’s disease.
- Pipeline includes additional drug candidates targeting the peripheral immune system for other tauopathies and neurodegenerative conditions.