With almost half a million euros, the Bavarian Research Foundation will fund a project that ISAR Bioscience will carry out together with the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Technical University of Munich. The aim is to develop a completely new therapy for pulmonary fibrosis, which can develop as a result of severe courses of the Covid 19 disease. Affected patients often complain of breathing difficulties and shortness of breath. The symptoms are presumably triggered by a pathological increase in connective tissue in the lungs – a process that impairs the transfer of oxygen into the blood. Scientists of Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Engelhardt’s research team and of ISAR Bioscience aim to suppress the connective tissue proliferation in the lungs with completely new therapeutics and thus alleviate the Covid 19-induced breathing difficulties.

These therapies are aimed at modifying the activity of certain “scavenger cells” of the immune system, the macrophages of the lung. This is done with novel molecules that specifically inhibit the activity of certain RNAs in the macrophages. New technologies enable the targeted transport of these molecules into the macrophages.

This collaboration gave rise to rnatics, a pharmaceutical spin-off company, which is developing therapeutics that target RNAs in macrophages that cause disease. The most advanced therapeutic is intended for use in lung disease and specifically in severe forms of COVID-19.

The data collected to date were recently submitted to the German Federal Office for Drugs and Medical Devices, which deemed them sufficient preclinical “proof of concept” and that encouraged finalization of preclinical toxicology testing and subsequent initiation of clinical phase 1a/b testing.