D over L for diabetes

ImmunoMolecular Therapeutics LLC’s small molecule inhibitor of an HLA-DQ8 peptide could treat Type I diabetes without courting the broad-spectrum immunosuppression of other disease-modifying therapies in development.

About 60% of Type I diabetes patients carry the HLA-DQ8 allele, whose peptides function as autoantigens on the surface of antigen-presenting cells (APCs). IM Therapeutics’ lead molecule, D-methyldopa, binds a pocket on a DQ8 peptide to prevent the antigen from binding effector T cells, blocking the consequent autoimmune cascade...