Modular Antigen Transportation™ (MAT™)

Traditional allergen specific immunotherapy relies on the injection of extracts from the allergen. This approach will elicit both the desirable immune protective response from T helper cell type 1 (Th1) that will deliver the cure but also runs the risk of stimulating undesirable Th2-mediated inflammatory responses to the allergen. For this reason, particularly in the early dose escalation stages of allergen specific immunotherapy, the risk of adverse reactions is relatively high. This renders the treatment potentially dangerous but also increases the likelihood of patients not completing the full course of therapy.

ImVisioN has developed a proprietary format for its immunotherapeutic products that addresses this need for a safer and more directed immune response: Modular Antigen Transportation ™ (MAT ™).


MAT ™ products are designed to minimize the negative Th2 responses seen in allergic patients while selectively boosting the desirable Th1 responses against the antigen structure. Each MAT ™ fusion protein consists of three functional elements:

  • A translocation module which enables the MAT ™ molecule to pass through the cell membrane and to get into antigen-presenting cells (APCs). These cells are the critical cells of the immune system responsible for processing of the allergen and for the stimulation of a specific immune response to such allergen.

  • A targeting module, which directs the processing of the MAT ™ molecule within the APC and which improves the presentation of the allergen and its components to the immune system via the MHC class II pathway thereby inducing an efficient protective immune response (Th1).

  • A module containing the allergen to which the patient is allergic, determining the specificity of the induced immune response.


Crameri R.et al.: Design, engineering and in vitro evaluation of MHC class-II targeting allergy vaccines. Allergy. 2007 Feb;62(2):197-206


IP Position

ImVisioN owns patent applications claiming MAT ™ immunotherapeutics that are granted in Europe and are pending internationally including the US.