PAnACEA  Antibody Protection with Alginate for the treatment of Chronic Enteric Diseases.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease) are chronic diseases that can heavily affect the quality of life of patients. Treatment of such diseases with anti-TNFalpha monoclonal antibody is effective, but the routes of administration available at present can cause severe side effects.

Starting from the results of the previous project “Oracle”, PAnACEA has as its main goal the investigation and efficacy test of a new oral administration strategy. The idea is to protect by alginate microspheres (microencapsulation) a sustainable anti-TNFα monoclonal antibody derived from plant molecular farming. This will be achieved through:
– set-up of an antibody protection strategy by microencapsulation in alginate microspheres, with a first phase of research and a subsequent technology transfer on industrial plant;
– Protection efficacy in vitro tests;
– Delivery efficiency and therapeutic efficacy in vivo tests on animal models;
– Development of the line of transgenic rice expressing anti-TNFα and generation of a Master Seed Bank. The material obtained will comply with current regulations and will be suitable for the production of drug substances for industrial drug development.

The project, presented in partnership with Biopolife Srl and funded by the  Anticipation PR FESR 2021-2027 – Incentives to companies for collaborative industrial research and experimental development – call 2022, started on 19 December 2022.

The program grants to Transactiva a contribution of 156.843,68 euro on an eligible expenditure of € 286.501,78 euro.