Eledon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ELDN

Eledon is a clinical stage biotechnology company using our immunology expertise in targeting the CD40 Ligand ("CD40L") pathway to develop therapies to protect transplanted organs and prevent rejection, and to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ("ALS"). Our lead compound in development is tegoprubart, an IgG1, anti-CD40L antibody with high affinity for the CD40L, a well-validated biological target that we believe has broad therapeutic potential. We believe the central role of CD40L signaling in both adaptive and innate immune cell activation and function positions it as an attractive target for non-lymphocyte depleting, immunomodulatory therapeutic intervention.

Tegoprubart is engineered to potentially both improve safety and provide pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and dosing advantages compared to other anti-CD40 approaches. The CD40L/CD40 pathway is recognized for its prominent role in immune regulation. CD40L is primarily expressed on activated CD4+ T cells, platelets and endothelial cells while the CD40 receptor is constitutively expressed on antigen presenting cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells, as well as B cells. By blocking CD40L and not the CD40 receptor, tegoprubart inhibits both the CD40 and CD11 costimulatory signaling pathways, providing the potential for improved efficacy compared to anti-CD40 receptor approaches. Blocking CD40L also increases polarization of CD4+ lymphocytes to Tregs, a specialized subpopulation of T cells that act to suppress an immune response, thus creating a more tolerogenic environment, which may play a therapeutic role in autoimmune diseases and in the prevention of allograft rejection after solid organ transplantation.