Peptilogics Announces Two Peer-Reviewed Publications on Designed Peptide Therapeutic PLG0206 for Periprosthetic Joint Infection

Data from first-in-human Phase 1 study of PLG0206, an investigational drug, published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, showed therapeutic was safe and well tolerated and has favorable pharmacokinetics when intravenously administered as a single-dose

Data from a clinical proxy study of PLG0206 published in Microbiology Spectrum showed therapeutics’ potential to reduce bacteria on chronically infected prosthetic knee joints, which may translate to improved clinical outcomes

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Peptilogics, a biotech company that designs peptide therapeutics to radically improve the treatment landscape for patients with serious and life-threatening diseases, today announced two studies on its lead designed peptide therapeutic, PLG0206, an investigational drug, have been published in peer-reviewed journals Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (AAC) and Microbiology Spectrum.

The first article, “A Phase 1 Study of Safety, Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics of Single Ascending Doses of a First in Human Engineered Cationic Peptide, PLG0206, Intravenously Administered in Healthy Subjects,” detailed results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single ascending dose study. The data indicated that PLG0206 was safe, well-tolerated and exhibited linear pharmacokinetics (PK) in healthy subjects at doses ranging from 0.05 to 1 mg/kg. The incidence of treatment emergent adverse events (TEAE) related to PLG0206 was low and most events were mild in severity and similar between the PLG0206 treatment and placebo groups. The median terminal half-life ranged from 7.37 to 19.92 hours, which is significantly longer when compared to other unmodified linear peptides. The study is currently available online.

“The data published in AAC help validate the important differentiators of PLG0206 in the anti-infective field: its favorable safety profile and enhanced pharmaceutical properties. These factors could play an important role in improving the standard of care for patients with periprosthetic joint infections (PJI),” said David Huang, MD, PhD, study author and Chief Medical Officer at Peptilogics. “PLG0206 represents the untapped potential to design peptides with enhanced therapeutic characteristics, enabling medicines to become simultaneously more effective and less toxic.”

The second article, published in Microbiology Spectrum, “Prospective Activity of PLG0206, an Engineered Antimicrobial Peptide, on Chronic Periprosthetic Joint Infection Total Knee Arthroplasty Components Ex Vivo: The Knee Explant Analysis (KnEA) Study,” demonstrated results from a prospective study completed using explanted implants gathered from 17 patients with chronic periprosthetic joint infections of the knee. Samples were exposed to PLG0206 at a concentration of 1 mg/mL for 15 minutes. Consequently, a mean 4-log10 reduction (range, 1 to 7) in the number of bacteria occurred, which may translate to improved clinical outcomes for persons with PJI of the knee. The study is currently available online.

“This study demonstrates the potential of PLG0206 to target the bacterial biofilms that adhere onto the prosthetic joint and lead to infection,” said Kenneth L. Urish, MD, a lead author of the paper. “This is a significant and promising finding, as currently available antibiotics and treatments for infections are often ineffective due to poor biofilm penetration.”

PLG0206 has been granted FDA Orphan Drug Designation and Qualified Infectious Disease Product Designation for the treatment of PJI, which can occur following a joint replacement procedure. PLG0206 has a unique mechanism of action that works by targeting and disrupting bacterial membranes leading to the rapid killing of bacterial cells.

Using proprietary peptide engineering techniques, Peptilogics has optimized PLG0206 for both safety and rapidly, bactericidal, broad-spectrum activity against biofilms that harbor and protect bacteria from most antibiotics. Peptilogics has additional programs in its pipeline and has also developed an AI-powered platform to accelerate the timeline for typical drug discovery, to more effectively identify and engineer peptides for long-term therapeutic potential.

About Peptilogics

Peptilogics engineers peptide therapeutics to radically improve the treatment landscape for patients with life-threatening diseases. Through biological and pharmaceutical expertise, novel artificial intelligence algorithms, and purpose-built super-computing, Peptilogics is advancing an extensive therapeutic pipeline and accelerating discovery efforts at a pace and scale that was previously impossible. Peptilogics is backed by visionary investors in life science and technology including Thiel Capital, Presight Capital, CARB-X, and Founders Fund. For more information about Peptilogics, visit www.peptilogics.com or follow the company on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Disclaimer:

This research is supported by Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X). CARB-X funding for this research is supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number IDSEP160030 from ASPR/BARDA and by an award from the Wellcome Trust. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CARB-X or any of its funders.

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Email: Jodie.Gillon@peptilogics.com