Australian drug development company CBio Limited (CBZ) announced that is has completed animal studies into the effectiveness of Chaperonin 10 in treating systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The results from the Lupus study conducted with the University of Munich show significant potential for the treatment of SLE and strengthen the company’s view that its lead compound XToll® has utility beyond a single indication.
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood, and kidneys. SLE is the most serious form of Lupus, a disease which mostly affects young females. The disease is treated with unspecific immunosuppressant’s such as steroids or cytotoxic drugs that cause serious toxicities in patients.
XToll® is a potential new-generation drug therapy which could provide safer and more effective treatment of autoimmune diseases. CBio Managing Director Jason Yeates said this study is an important link in CBio’s drug development pipeline. “We are greatly encouraged by these results as they provide us with further evidence that XToll® could potentially be developed to treat a range of autoimmune diseases,” Mr Yeates said.
XToll® is a biologically active, modified variant of the naturally occurring protein, Chaperonin 10. The company has previously completed phase I and early phase II studies with XToll® in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis and multiple sclerosis (MS).



