Here is today's ANN
Phylogica exceeds gold-standard for treatment of MYC-driven cancer
More than 7 in 10 cancer cases depend on the mutant gene MYC for survival1. While recognised as an important cancer target, there are currently no effective MYC therapies available. This is due primarily to the inability to deliver an effective MYC inhibitor into the intracellular environment where MYC exists.
Phylogica recently announced the results of an independently performed
animal model of disease that demonstrated the ability of its Cell Penetrating Phylomers (CPPs) to deliver a drug cargo called OmoMYC inside cells to effectively inhibit MYC. Phylogica is now pleased to announce that:
• It has identified multiple Phylomer peptide cargoes that are able to
inhibit activity of MYC when delivered as drugs inside cancer cells;
• two of these Phylomer cargoes demonstrate superior activity to the gold
standard MYC inhibitor (OmoMYC) for the ability to kill cancer cells;
• it will evaluate an expanded set of potential candidates before selecting a lead cargo to assess for drug like properties when conjugated to its lead CPP and delivered in an animal model of cancer.
Perth, Australia, 16 November 2015: Phylogica Limited (ASX
YC) has
successfully identified multiple proprietary Phylomer candidates with confirmed ability to bind and block intracellular MYC activity. Notably, two of these Phylogica candidates exhibit better killing activity in cancer cells than the previous gold standard OmoMYC when fused to Phylogica’s proprietary cell penetrating Phylomers.
Richard Hopkins, Phylogica’s CEO said “We’re delighted to have identified at least two proprietary Phylomers that represent the most potent inhibitors of MYC yet described. This outcome is a testament to the power of the Phylomer platform which has unique potential to discover and deliver our own drugs against some of the highest value (but currently undruggable) targets in cancer.”
In an additional encouraging finding, preliminary testing using one of the two Phylomers with superior activity to OmoMYC showed that this peptide was stable when incubated in serum for over 24 hours. Serum stability is an important ‘drug-like’property required to achieve activity in animal models of disease.
Phylogica’s CSO, Dr Paul Watt, commented “To date we’ve assayed less than 20% of the hits identified in the primary screens against MYC as fusions to our cell penetrating Phylomers. We are encouraged by the high hit rate so far and are confident that a larger pool of specific MYC inhibitors will emerge once the functional screens are completed early next year. Once we have identified a broader set of MYC inhibitors we will then choose the highest quality candidates for analysis in animal models of cancer.”
Phylogica’s differentiation in the field of intracellular drug delivery now extends from best in class cell penetrating Phylomers for drug delivery to best in class active biologics drug compounds active against MYC. The company is looking forward to publishing the results of animal models demonstrating the effects of systemically delivered proprietary CPP-cargo compounds in 2016.
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