Aethlon Medical Will Perform Pre-Clinical Studies to Explore Potential Synergies With its First-in-Class Hemopurifier Blood Filtration System

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Aethlon Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEMD), a medical therapeutic company focused on developing products to treat cancer and life-threatening infectious diseases, today announced that it entered into a Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA) with Santersus AG, a Zurich-London based, privately held therapeutic medical device company, for Santersus' NucleoCapture and HemoNucleoCapture devices.

Under the terms of the MTA, Santersus will supply Aethlon with NucleoCapture and HemoNucleoCapture devices, designed to remove Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs), which are toxic to tissues and organs and are implicated in the pathophysiology of cancer, sepsis, autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, and ischemia reperfusion injury in organ transplantation.

Aethlon will perform initial pre-clinical studies to examine the NucleoCapture and HemoNucleoCapture devices, alone, and in combination with Aethlon's Hemopurifier -- a therapeutic blood filtration system designed to bind and remove harmful exosomes and life-threatening viruses from blood and other biological fluids -- to assess their ability to remove important targets in samples from cancer patients, as well as from perfusates from kidneys that have undergone machine perfusion as part of the renal transplantation process.

"We look forward to initiating pre-clinical studies shortly, to expand upon the data that Santersus has generated in sepsis and liver and lung transplantation, and more importantly, to explore potential synergies with our Hemopurifier, initially in oncology and renal transplantation, as well as other potential indications," stated James Frakes, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Aethlon Medical. "Our belief is that the NETs removed by the NucleoCapture and HemoNucleoCapture devices, in combination with the clinical mediators removed by our Hemopurifier, could have an additive or synergistic effect in both the cancer and kidney transplant settings. The signing of the MTA represents an important milestone for both companies, as it is the first step toward a potential future collaboration."

"Our collaboration with Aethlon has provided us with research and development partners with expertise and capabilities to help advance our NucleoCapture technology platform forward in important fields, such as oncology and kidney transplantation. We are excited to continue building on the progress we've made in Santersus thus far and on taking the next steps forward in executing on our plans to advance NucleoCapture technology," commented Scott Maguire, Chairman of Santersus. "NETs are being increasingly recognized as an important element in cancer progression and metastasis. We believe extracorporeal removal of NETs using NucleoCapture either alone or in combination with Hemopurifier technology might create a transformational treatment option for patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors or CAR T cell therapies."