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Aileron Adds Scripps Chemistry Process for Drug Discovery

Beakers and test tubes (Horia Varlan/Flickr)The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California and Aileron Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts said today (30 November) they agreed to add Scripps Research’s molecular chemistry technology known as “click chemistry” to Aileron’s peptide and protein platforms. The agreement provides Aileron exclusive rights to use click chemistry for therapeutics and non-exclusive rights for diagnostics.

Click chemistry describes a process for generating substances quickly and reliably by joining — “clicking” — small reactive molecular building blocks together selectively and covalently to create a spontaneous and irreversible binding. The companies say this synthetic chemistry process can accelerate the drug discovery process by using a few practical and reliable reactions.

Aileron’s peptide technology platform — called stapled peptides by the company — produces connect optimized amino acids and mimic natural biologic structures capturing features of both small molecules and therapeutic proteins. These features result in desirable properties for drugs: cell penetration, pharmacokinetics (absorption, distribution, and metabolism of drugs in the body), binding to large target protein surfaces, and stability in the body.

The company says its stapled peptides, which have been tested in preclinical studies, can help address difficult disease targets, particularly those involving interactions among proteins within cells, previously out of reach of conventional therapies.

Related: Aileron, Roche to Partner on Peptide Drug Delivery

Photo: Horia Varlan/Flickr

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