Zensun provides innovative therapeutics for major diseases.
Zensun’s proprietary core science is based on our intensive research of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), specifically the ErbB receptor family and downstream-activated signaling pathways. We believe that our breakthrough discoveries will revolutionize heart failure and cancer treatment.
Receptor tyrosine kinases are cell surface proteins that regulate many essential cell type-specific functions,
particularly cell growth, proliferation, and survival. The ErbB family of RTKs includes 4 distinct receptors (ErbB1, ErbB2, ErbB3 and ErbB4),
each of which shares sequence similarity with a protein encoded by the chicken retroviral oncogene v-erbB.
Insufficient ErbB signaling in humans is associated with the development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Excessive ErbB signaling is associated with the development of a wide variety of types of solid tumors. ErbB1 and ErbB2 are found in many human cancers, and their excessive signaling may be critical factors in the development and malignancy of these tumors. Many anti-cancer drugs, either small-molecule drugs or antibody drugs, have been developed to inhibit the overexpression of ErbB signaling.
After decades of research in the ErbB signaling system, Zensun brings new visions into the links of this signaling system and some important diseases.
We have discovered that Neuregulin-1 regulated ErbB2/ErbB3 heterodimerization plays a critical role in cardiovascular development and adult heart function maintenance. This discovery directly leads to our innovative anti-heart failure drug NeucardinTM.
We have also found that heterodimerization of ErbB2 and ErbB3 is essential for the tumor development instead of only ErbB2 overexpression. And we identified ErbB3 as our proprietary target for new generation of breast cancer treatment. This insight leads to our therapeutic tumor vaccine, rhErbB3-f.