Twice as splice

Abivax S.A. (Euronext:ABVX) has positioned its anti-HIV therapy ABX464 to take on inflammatory diseases after discovering the small molecule triggers RNA splicing that both halts HIV viral replication and boosts anti-inflammatory responses in HIV and ulcerative colitis.

According to CEO Hartmut Ehrlich, ABX464 binds the human cap binding complex (CBC) and promotes its splicing activity. The company already knew the compound prevents HIV from entering patients’ blood by accelerating the splicing of an mRNA the virus needs in unspliced form to replicate, which it reported in a 2015 Retrovirology study. ...