The ProMIS technology is a computer based algorithm that predicts disease specific epitopes (DSEs) in misfolded proteins based on thermodynamic analysis for identifying regions most likely to lose structure under stress or mildly denaturing conditions.
PREVENT will use ProMIS as prophylactic vaccine targets to block infection by prions (as in chronic wasting disease of deer and elk), and as therapeutic vaccine targets for cancers in which the normal prion protein structure is disrupted.
Amorfix chief scientific officer Neil Cashman said their discovery that exposure of prion protein targets in prion disease and cancer provides a strong rationale for pursuing vaccine approaches to these two important diseases in animals and human beings.