Driven by progress in Immunology and Regulated Cell Death

Regulated cell death (RCD), including necroptosis and pyroptosis, is implicated as an underlying mechanism driving many innate immune cell mediated conditions through sustained chronic inflammation and autoimmunity, which persist throughout the course of disease.

RCD is therefore a critical therapeutic target with the potential to address multiple human disorders. These include neurodegeneration and myocardial infarction where irreversible loss of post-mitotic tissue resulting from RCD is a  primary determinant in disease pathology.

In particular, the recently discovered role of tightly regulated necroptosis as a pivotal cell death mechanism contributes to pathogenesis of many diseases and consequently the pathway is now as a backup mechanism to apoptosis controlled by both caspase dependent and independent mechanisms. Primary drug targets of necrosome initiation and formation include RIPK1, 3 and MLKL.

Accordingly, MPL is exploiting its proprietary ESM^™ technology to develop best-in-class cell selective small molecule therapeutics targeting necroptosis.