Mitochondria Meet Combinatorial Chemistry — MitoKor Acquires Mimotopes
MitoKor envisions forming a continuing series of research and development alliances with biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners. Mimotopes will continue to sell its peptide products, proprietary kits and reagents to pharmaceutical and biotechnology researchers through its direct sales force and worldwide network of distributors. Mimotopes will also continue to collaborate with major pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies in technology development and drug discovery programs. The combined entity will employ over 100 people and will have annual revenues exceeding $10 million
Founded in 1992 (as Applied Genetics), MitoKor focuses on pharmacogenetics associated with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in which mitochondrial dysfunction is a major contributing etiologic event, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM). A key to this process is the development of proprietary cybrid cell lines that model mitochondrial dysfunction in disease-appropriate cellular environments. Neuron-like cells are used for neurodegenerative disease; insulin secreting and insulin responsive cells are used for NIDDM.
Defective mitochondria from diseased donors are introduced into MitoKor's proprietary human and rodent rho-zero cell lines, which are essentially mitochondrial DNA knockout cells. The result is a cybrid cell, which contains inter alia the diseased mitochondria from donors, and which models the metabolic phenotype/genotype of the disease. Cybrids made from diseased and healthy donors are used to identify differentially expressed genes and proteins, providing complete comparative expression profiles (mRNA/protein). These "fingerprints" ultimately may identify new diagnostic markers and provide proprietary molecular targets for the company's lead discovery, drug development and pharmacogenomic programs.
MitoKor and its collaborators have identified specific alterations in mitochondrial function, in the mitochondrial-nuclear proteome and in nucleic acids of both mitochondrial and nuclear origin. Both small molecule therapeutic leads and diagnostic assays have been discovered using this proprietary information. The resulting small molecule therapeutics are now entering preclinical animal studies. The company's Alzheimer's disease diagnostic assay is being used to stratify patients in support of clinical trials of anti-dementia agents.
For more information, contact: Michele Le Gear, MitoKor, 11494 Sorrento Valley Road, San Diego, CA 92121, phone: 858-793-7800, FAX: 858-793-7805, legearm@mitokor.com.