| Endocyte is developing a new generation of receptor-targeted therapeutics or "smart drugs" for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Current non-targeted drugs are usually toxic to normal healthy cells causing serious side effects. These side effects can be life-threatening which leads to suboptimal dosing. Receptor-targeted therapeutics can be more effective because they can be targeted with lethal precision to high affinity receptors over-expressed by diseased cells. Our initial focus is on a receptor for the vitamin folic acid, which is often over-expressed on cancer cells. By attaching drugs to folic acid, the vitamin acts like a “Trojan Horse” to target and deliver drugs to cancer cells, which could allow higher and more effective doses to be given with reduced side effects. |
