Date: 2014-07-14
Type of information: Publication of results in a medical journal
phase:
Announcement: publication of results in the Journal of Biological Chemistry
Company: aTyr Pharma (USA - CA)
Product: physiocrines
Action
mechanism: Physiocrines have homeostatic functions. They can act as extracellular signaling molecules to orchestrate immuno-homeostasis in response to stress and other physiological changes. Physiocrines comprise naturally occurring proteins derived from tRNA synthetases that play fundamental roles in the function of human physiology and restoring pathophysiological states to a healthier state. aTyr is currently focused on Physiocrines that act as endogenous modulators of immune and regenerative systems. Physiocrines offer the opportunity for modulating biological pathways through newly discovered naturally occurring mechanisms, many of which may provide multiple therapeutic advantages, including improved efficacy and reduced side effect profiles compared to many existing therapeutics.
Disease: idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) dermatomyositis
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Autoimmune diseases - Neuromuscular diseases
Country:
Trial details:
Latest
news: * On July 14, 2014, aTyr Pharma, an innovative rare disease therapeutics enterprise, announced the publication of an article on splice variant of cytoplasmic histidyl-tRNA synthetase (HisRS) in association with a rare muscle disease. This article, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, demonstrated novel findings relative to Physiocrine proteins, that include extracellular functions derived from the tRNA synthetase gene family. Anti-Jo-1 antibodies are myositis specific autoantibodies most commonly found in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM).These antibodies are directed against the histidyl-tRNA synthetase which catalyses the binding of the histidine to its cognate tRNA during protein synthesis. The article noted that two HisRS splice variants (SVs) cross-react with a substantial population of anti-Jo-l antibodies from myositis patients. Moreover, expression of at least one of the SVs is up-regulated in dermatomyositis patients, and cell-based experiments show that both SVs and HisRS can be secreted. This work indicates that secreted HisRS and its SVs share epitopes for potential extracellular anti-Jo-1 antibody binding. Jie J. Zhou et al. \"Secreted Histidyl-tRNA Synthetase Splice Variants Elaborate Major Epitopes for Autoantibodies in Inflammatory Myositis\". July 11, 2014. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 289, 19269-19275. doi: 10.1074/jbc.C114.571026
