Therapeutic Areas

Hidradenitis Suppurativa 

Citryll is developing CIT-013 as a novel therapy for patients suffering from Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS).

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Hidradenitis Suppurativa severely affects the lives of millions of patients

HS is a chronic, debilitating, autoinflammatory skin disorder that affects approximately 2% of the US and European population. It is characterized by recurrent, painful skin lesions with nodules, abscesses, and pus-draining tunnels in areas where juxtaposed skin surfaces chafe or rub. HS lesions can progress into interconnected tunnels accompanied by scarring and irreversible tissue destruction.

The primary pathogenic event in HS is hair follicle obstruction leading to dilation and eventual rupture, to discharge the contents into the surrouding dermis. This initiates inflammatory cell infiltration into HS lesions.

Patients suffering from this disease have severely decreased quality of life with symptoms often leading to reduced mobility, social isolation, anxiety and depression.

Neutrophils and NETs are key inflammatory drivers in Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Neutrophils are an important component of leukocyte infiltration into HS lesions. Analysis of skin biopsies has identified that those HS lesions are enriched with increasing NET levels associating with increased disease severity.

The pro-inflammatory and cytotoxic nature of NETs, and their abundance in HS lesions in a manner that correlates with disease severity, positions CIT-013 as an exciting first-in-class therapeutic approach for this disease in which there remains significant unmet medical need.

CIT-013 is currently progressing through clinical development, with a Phase 2a study in HS expected to begin later this year.

NETs are widely distributed in HS skin biopsies

HS skin biopsy stained for citH3 (pink) and DNA (blue). The intracellular, punctate citH3 staining typical for maturing keratinocytes. NETs are identified as the diffuse extracellular citH3-positive signal, clearly present in the epidermis.

Citryll unpublished data