A determined explorer in aptamer drug discovery and design in China

Aptacure Therapeutics Limited is a biotechnology company based in Hong Kong Science Park, aiming to develop innovative aptamer drugs to meet unmet medical need. Funded by the HKSAR Government's Innovation and Technology Commission (UIM/298 and UIM/328), the core technologies and products of the Aptacure are originated from the following two research groups from a synergetic research platform named “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Research Platform for Aptamer-based Translational Medicine and Drug Discovery (HKAP)” (https://www.hkaptamer.com/):

       i) Hong Kong Baptist University, "Aptamer-based Translational Medicine and Drug Discovery" research group co-led by Prof. Ge Zhang (https://research.hkbu.edu.hk/researcher/zhang-ge) and Prof. Aiping Lyu    (https://research.hkbu.edu.hk/researcher/aiping-lyu, https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Lyu_Aiping).

       ii) The Chinese University of Hong Kong, "Molecular Medicine and Translational Science" research group led by Prof. Baoting Zhang (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bao-Ting-Zhang-2).

Notably, the Aptacure was successfully selected on the list of the 2020 Top 50 of Innovative Biotechnology Enterprises in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and won the Potential Enterprise Award (https://www.sohu.com/a/440083975_753649) (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The list of the Potential Enterprise Award in 2020 Top 50 of Innovative Biotechnology Enterprises in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. 

Note:The Chinese name of Aptacure Therapeutics Limited is AN PEI ZHI LIAO YOU XIANG GONG SI(安沛治療有限公司).

Over the last two decades, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become one of the most important therapeutic drugs for many diseases. Currently, seven of the top 10 best-selling drugs were mAbs. Aptamers, also known as chemical antibodies, are single-stranded nucleic acid oligonucleotides which could specifically bind to their targets with high affinity. In practical applications, aptamers bene?t from their convenience of generation, low manufacturing cost, little batch-to-batch di?erences, reversible folding features, and very low immunogenicity compared to mAbs. Therefore, aptamers are considered to be a promising alternatives to mAbs. Consequently, aptamers are considered to be a promising alternatives to mAbs (Dunn et al., Nat Rev Chem 2017).

 Currently, the Aptacure is cooperating with the members of HKAP by focusing on developing core technologies, including the technologies for aptamer drug discovery, the long-lasting modification technologies of aptamers, and the high-affinity modification technologies of aptamers to their targets (see the “Products” for detailed).

 At present, Aptacure is cooperating with the members of HKAP by focusingon developing two innovative aptamer drugs namely, the aptamer targeting sclerostin (Apc001), and the aptamer targeting Dickkopf1 (Apc002) (see the “Technology platform” for detailed).

       Reference

 Dunn, M., Jimenez, R. &Chaput, J. (2017). Analysis of aptamer discovery and technology. Nat Rev Chem1: 1-16.

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