CSTS Health Care is a next generation biotechnology company dedicated to improving cancer patient survival and quality of life.
Built upon two decades of platelet and cancer research by our chief medical officer, Dr. Lakka, the Cytesia precision drug platform is a highly disruptive technology that increases compound half-life, reduces systemic toxicities, and enables precision combination therapies previously out of reach. Cytesia exploits a natural response system in the body – platelets – enhancing their normal “first aid” cargo with an additional “therapeutic” cargo.
Platelet Science
The platelet role in hemostasis, tissue repair and tissue invasion is very relevant to cancer. Platelets are first responders to vascular injury and form a provisional matrix (stroma) at site enriched for growth regulators. The platelet cargo is released in response to tissue signals rather than upon contact.
The Platelet Anchoring Ligands (PALs) enable Platelet Facilitated Drugs (PFDs) to utilize the natural platelet transportation mechanisms. PAL has been demonstrated on antibodies and small molecules, and different forms of PAL have been developed to utilize different compartments of α-granules.
Cytesia enables a therapeutic cargo to be added to the existing “first aid” cargo of platelets. By using a natural biological transportation system, Cytesia allows multiple drug classes and drug combinations to be deployed together, allowing for example a chemotherapeutic backbone, targeted agents and an immune therapy to be used without creating challenging toxicities. Because platelet specificity is to cancer vasculature, anti-cancer cargo gets delivered to the tumor bed targeting both primary and metastatic sites – including into the CNS and across Blood Brain Barrier (BBB).
Platelet-Facilitated Drugs (PFDs) also benefit from an extended therapeutic window to a maximum of 7 days. Once conjugated to Cytesia parental compounds benefit from improved bio-distribution, along with precise time-controlled release by tissue activation.
How Cytesia Works
Patented platelet anchoring ligands (PALs) are conjugated to a parental compound, virtually any compound can be used. Once PAL is attached, the compound gains the ability to be sequester within the platelet interior through the existing biological processes. When a compound is protected inside the platelet alpha granule, the compound benefits from an increased half-life – therapeutic cargo avoids any interaction with organs and tissues, as well as destruction by plasma proteases while in circulation. Because platelets naturally adheres to the activated vascular endothelium within the tumor microenvironment, Cytesia avoids systemic toxicities by delivering and releasing drugs directly at tumor bed at both the primary and metastatic sites. Conventional systemic cancer therapies are associated with multiple adverse side effects which are compounded as more drugs are used together for synergistic anti-cancer effect. By mitigating the negative side effects, Cytesia transforms any parental compound into a PFD and allows it to be used in novel combinations that would have previously been out of reach due to toxicities.