Technology

> Technology Home

Hormonal Signaling Technology Platform

Harbor BioSciences is developing a proprietary new class of small molecule compounds — metabolic conversions or synthetic analogs of adrenal steroid hormones — designed to restore the biological activity of cellular signaling pathways disrupted by disease and aging.

The naturally occurring steroid hormones on which Harbor BioSciences’s small molecule compounds are based are derived from dehydroepiandrosterone, one of the most abundant circulating adrenal steroids in the body. The function of steroid hormones is to provide chemical signals that regulate biological functions such as growth, metabolism and reproduction. Harbor BioSciences’s compounds act as hormonal signalers with three core properties. They regulate innate and adaptive immunity, reduce unproductive inflammation, and stimulate cell proliferation and tissue regeneration. Each of these properties, working either independently or in combination, may have significant utility in a broad array of diseases and disorders.

Harbor BioSciences’s molecules consist of four rings that comprise a steroid nucleus upon which atoms are positioned. Changing the nature and position of the atoms on these rings changes the function or activity of the resulting molecule. The number of potential molecular combinations of rings and carbon atom positions is vast, as is the potential array of corresponding biological activities. This unique structure-activity dynamic has translated into an intellectual property portfolio for Harbor BioSciences consisting of issued and pending claims covering numerous compounds.

Numerous highly beneficial and successful drugs have been produced from related classes of steroid hormones. Today, Harbor BioSciences scientists are drawing on the legacy of steroid medicinal chemistry and applying modern drug -development technologies to deliver the therapeutic potential of a whole new class of steroids.