Biotech start-up to treat autoimmune diseases with hookworms

Paragen Bio, a new biotech start-up from James Cook University (JCU), was launched this week in Cairns, following a $6 million investment from venture capital firms AbbVie Ventures, Brandon Capital Partners (via the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund) and OneVentures.

One of just a handful of biotech companies in North Queensland, Paragen Bio is focused on treating autoimmune diseases — a range of diseases in which the immune system attacks healthy tissues and organs, leading to the deterioration, and in some cases to the complete destruction, of tissue. The company’s technology is based on research with parasitic hookworms, conducted at JCU’s Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) by Professor Alex Loukas and his team for the past eight years.

Hookworms are blood-sucking parasites that frequently infect humans in tropical regions with poor sanitation. Because of a modern lifestyle and access to anti-worm therapies, the prevalence of hookworm infections in humans is slowly decreasing. Ironically, this lack of infection is linked to a rise in the incidence of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), asthma and allergic diseases globally.

In clinical trials, Paragen researchers have shown that experimental infection of human subjects with hookworms can protect against the onset of autoimmune diseases, with proteins extracted from hookworm saliva found to prevent the development of symptoms associated with a range of inflammatory diseases. The $6 million investment into Paragen will thus go towards advancing the development of novel medicines sourced from hookworms to treat such autoimmune diseases.

“Autoimmune diseases are reaching epidemic proportions in developed countries and there is an urgent need for new therapeutic approaches,” said Professor Loukas, who serves as Head of Research for Paragen.

“At Paragen Bio we’re being guided in our drug discovery efforts by millennia of co-evolution between parasitic hookworms and their mammalian hosts, and in particular, the effect hookworms can have on our immune systems.

“We’re excited to be working with AbbVie Ventures, Brandon Capital and OneVentures, whose investment will help us make that critical step from research towards eventually trialling a potential treatment.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Kateryna_Kon