Innovative therapeutic approach
MEDSENIC aims to exploit the new possibilities offered by the therapeutic use of arsenic trioxide (As2O3) for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Most existing therapies seek to decrease abnormal immune activity through immunosuppressive therapies or targeted monoclonal antibodies. In a totally new and different way, our therapeutic approach aims to correct, at the source, the malfunctioning of the immune system and its runaway.
We target cells that are activated, proliferate and produce cytokines, which are particularly active in the immune system. These normally fight infections, but in the case of an autoimmune disease, they attack the body itself, causing varying degrees of damage.
The discovery of the mechanisms of As2O3 and the positive results of preclinical tests in Lupus have shown that the action of the product on subtypes of pathogenic cells of the immune system leads to their elimination. It therefore corrects abnormalities in all biological parameters tested, in particular abnormal cytokine levels.
The As203 is extremely innovative. It is effective, at the preclinical level, both from a preventive and curative point of view and side effects are reduced. It is a "first-in-class" drug: it belongs to a completely new class of drugs, no longer capable of non-specific and dangerous immunosuppression, but of radically altering the autoimmune chain and modulating the functioning of the immune system.
History of arsenic treatment
Arsenic was used in the first half of the 20th century by the famous German chemist and pharmacologist Paul Ehrlich to develop Salvarsan, a drug to treat syphilis. It was he who invented the concept of the "magic bullet" in 1907: a drug that targets the molecular mechanism that causes a disease. For this discovery, he is considered by many to be the "father of chemotherapy".
The idea to apply this substance to cancer came from China. Indeed, in Chinese medicine, an arsenic-based preparation, Ai-ling 1, was used to treat cancers.
In the 1990s, arsenic trioxide was used for patients suffering from APL (Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia), with remarkable remissions, whereas this disease had previously been responsible for very high morbidity.
The discovery of the use of As2O3 in autoimmune diseases was made in the early 2000s in a CNRS Institute in Villejuif (Paris - France) by researchers Mounira K CHELBI- ALIX and Pierre BOBE.