Targeting cellular senescence to extend human healthspan at old age and to counteract late stage cancer
That’s our mission
Cleara is a biopharmaceutical R&D company dedicated to discovery and development of therapies against cancer and chronic diseases through selective elimination of subtypes of cellular senescence
Through detailed understanding of the molecular and biological pathways that underlie these individual pathological phenotypes, we set up disruptive, innovative and proprietary platform technology to design and optimize (peptide-based) therapeutics that exploit their weak spots for safe and selective clearance. Cleara’s lead FOXO4 program is focused on generation of compounds against “scarred” cellular senescence for treatment of metastatic, mutant-p53 cancer.
Senescent cells are associated with a range of chronic diseases and cancer progression. However, Cleara acknowledges that there are different kinds of senescence. We do not focus on “magic bullets” to kill all senescent cells but develop specific and safe compounds against unique subtypes. Cleara’s goal is to progress these into clinical development with the intent of precision medicine against specific diseases with clear niche-directed anti-senescence lead candidates, with associated biomarkers, around its FOXO4-based D-amino acid pipeline.
The mechanism of action of Cleara’s lead compounds:
Two lead development candidates
Cleara has optimized two lead development candidates, CL04177 and CL04183 that are specifically able to eliminate a type called “scarred” senescence, found in several chronic diseases and late-stage cancer in humans. CL04183/4177 show favorable pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution in mice and have an MTD that is well above their efficacious dose. They have very long shelf-life, plasma stability and are resistant to degradation by liver enzymes.
In 2D cells, 3D organoid and mouse in vivo models for metastatic colon cancer (mCRC) and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), CL04177/4183 potently counter metastatic burden and infiltration. Importantly, this is matched with the presence of biomarkers and Cleara designed a preclinical and clinical development strategy towards progressing these lead development compounds towards clinical trials in solid tumors as well as hematological malignancies.