THERABEST Co., Ltd. plans to release its pre-clinical results of immune-modulatory NK (imNK) cells on Alzheimer’s disease for the first time at an international conference.

These research findings on the therapeutic effect and mode of action of imNK cells will be presented at the Alzheimer’s Accociation International Conference (AAIC), taking place in San Diego, USA from July 31 to August 4.

The upcoming AAIC presentation will showcase the company’s aim to shift the therapeutic paradigm to address Alzheimer’s disease with potential NK cell therapy.

The human gene mutant transgenic Alzheimer’s disease animal model showed improvement in cognitive function and significant reduction of beta amyloid plaque aggregation. Spatial transcriptomic techniques, which allow the simultaneous examination of entire gene expression in individual brain regions and changes of a variety of brain cell types, was introduced to investigate the underlying mode of action analysis of Alzheimer’s disease treatment, revealing significant decrease in dysfunctional microglial cells inducing neuroinflammation in a certain brain region and increase in gene signatures associated with cellular respiration and immune metabolism.

Do Won Hwang, CTO of THERABEST, said “over the last three years, we’ve witnessed that imNK cells, which secrete immunomodulatory cytokines and neurotropic factors, can promote a decrease in pathological protein aggregate level and recovery of cognitive function in various Alzheimer’s disease models. Thanks to the joint research with Seoul National University, spatial transcriptome analysis clearly elucidated a new mode of action of imNK cell therapy by observing the recovery of inhibitory neurons in specialized brain region involved in emotion control”.

THERABEST is planning for a clinical trial of EiNK, an “off-the-shelf” iPSC-derived NK cell therapeutics allowing mass production with low cost, on Alzheimer’s disease.