Immune Control Gets $11.3M for Serotonin Work

Immune Control Inc. raised $11.3 million in its Series A financing to develop serotonin antagonists for lymphocytic cancers and autoimmune diseases, and to begin the first two clinical programs in multiple myeloma and psoriasis.

The company's work is based on serotonin being a critical factor for the replication of activated immune cells, and that blocking the serotonin receptors could cause apoptosis in activated lymphocytes.

Serotonin receptors have been targets for years in the area of central nervous system (CNS) disorders and diseases, and have been involved in the discovery of antidepressants and antipsychotics, as well as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Paxil and Prozac. But, until recently, Roth said, there seemed to be a general consensus that serotonin was active only in CNS.

One of Immune Control's scientific founders, Brad Jameson, presented work that uncovered a connection between serotonin receptors and immune cells. Jameson, a professor of biochemistry at Drexel's College of Medicine, had been working on a peptide that could interfere with the attachment of HIV to cell sites when he made the discovery, Roth said.

"This means serotonin potentially can be [targeted] in immune indications," he said, including rheumatoid arthritis, Type I diabetes, lupus and organ transplant rejection.

Immune Control, which exclusively licensed patents relating to serotonin receptors from Drexel, will be working with already-marketed antagonists that are supported by considerable safety data, as well as supporting research to developing its own antagonists. The company's focus will be on creating products that do not go into the central nervous system, or cross the blood-brain barrier, to prevent the common side effects of serotonin-targeted drugs.

Roth said the company also has agreement to test serotonin antagonists developed by an unnamed large pharmaceutical company that have not been commercialized because they don't enter the central nervous system.

Immune Control's human trials are expected to begin with a study in patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer that affects B cells. A second clinical study is expected to test a serotonin antagonist in psoriasis, a T-cell disease.

"We're hoping to have both in trials by the end of 2005," he said.