NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes is collaborating with Monopar Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, to develop potential Radio-Immuno-Therapeutics (RITs) to treat severe COVID-19, the company announced recently.

“NorthStar will apply its expertise to identify and supply the optimal therapeutic radioisotope to couple with Monopar’s uPAR monoclonal antibodies,” NorthStar Senior Vice President James T. Harvey, PhD said in a statement. “We will deploy the most appropriate development approaches and production technology to ensure that both development and, if successful, commercial-scale volumes of this radioisotope, can be supplied in order to meet potential demand.”

According to a release, Monopar and NorthStar plan to couple a targeted monoclonal antibody known as MNPR-101 to a therapeutic radioisotope supplied by NorthStar. This process will create a selective agent that has the potential to kill aberrantly activated cytokine-producing immune cells. Those immune cells produce pro-inflammatory cytokines that can cause runaway inflammation throughout the body in response to coronavirus infection.

Monopar Therapeutics is based in Chicago.