Our technology

SUR-101 is inspired by years of observational studies by Professor Balachandran Ravindran from the Institute for Life Sciences in India. Ravindran and his team performed research in humans that are infected with a tropical roundworm that is highly prevalent in India and other countries that harbor a tropical climate. He found that these patients are less prone to severe symptoms of sepsis. Studies into the physiological mechanism behind these observations led to the identification of a very specific protein from these roundworm parasites which is responsible for protecting it’s host against severe sepsis, which we call SUR-101.

Administration of SUR-101 provided a clear survival benefit in two independent, validated sepsis models in animals: A single intra-peritoneal injection of SUR-101 protected mice against mortality from polymicrobial sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), a gold standard for preclinical evaluation of potential sepsis drugs and a single intranasal dose protects against mortality induced by challenge with influenza-A virus H1N1 in an influenza (viral) infection based sepsis model.

In these studies, SUR-101 acted as a pro-inflammatory molecule that improved survival when administered after onset of sepsis (which simulates the real life scenario in patients). This fits into the existing conundrum of the pathogenesis of sepsis that immune suppression occurs in later stages of sepsis and interventions targeting immune suppression need to be administered in more advanced stages of severe infection.