Just an FYI on Patrys article in the Australian yesterday for our fellow collaborators at IBX. Excuse the format but its copied and pasted as subscription only
Regards
Breakthrough antibody drug PAT-DX1 to treat brain cancer
Researchers have developed the first antibody drug that could treat brain cancer, with the therapy able to cross the blood-brain barrier in a major feat for science.There is currently little hope for brain cancer patients as drugs are unable to penetrate into the brain to shrink the cancer cells.But now Australian biotech company Patrys has worked with scientists in the US to develop a tumour-targeting autoantibody, dubbed PAT-DX1, which has been shown in animal studies to significantly inhibit the growth of tumours in three models of cancer, including brain and breast cancer.READ NEXTLOVE A SHOW TUNEMovie Musicals hit new HeightsHANNAH-ROSE YEEThe therapy works by passing through a membrane transporter called ENT2, allowing the drug to penetrate into cells, block DNA repair and shrink tumours.Deoxymab-1 (DX1) is a DNA-damaging autoantibody that is lethal to cancer cells with defects in the DNA damage response.“What our antibody does which is unique is that rather than binding to the outside of the cell, it crosses inside the cell and gets inside the nucleus and basically stops DNA repair,” Patrys CEO James Campbell said. “This method by which it crosses into the cell is the same method by which it crosses across the blood-brain barrier.“Getting therapies into the brain is really tricky The body has a whole heap of mechanisms to stop things getting into the brain.“So we think this is really exciting because we have an antibody which we know works against a range of different cancers and we can show that it crosses the blood-brain barrier.”The only current drug treatment available for brain cancer is a small molecule therapy called temozolomide, which is typically given after radiation therapy but which is largely ineffective as it cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. Chemotherapy drugs are also largely unable to cross the barrier. Patients diagnosed with one of the most common brain cancers, glioblastoma, survive on average for only 15 months after their diagnosis.“When we think of biologics, there are no antibodies that have been shown to get into the brain,” Dr Campbell said. “We’re confident that we’re on the cusp of potentially a revolution in new therapies for treating brain cancers, and some cancers outside the brain as well.”Peer-reviewed research that establishes the therapy shrinks tumour cells in mice has been published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.The therapy was first developed by scientists at UCLA and Yale University. Yale School of Medicine associate professor of therapeutic radiology, James Hansen, said a major advantage of the biologic is that does not have the side-effect of killing normal cells.“The really magical thing about this antibody is that it can penetrate into live cells, which is very unusual,” he said. “It’s always been sort of a mystery as to how that could occur. Eventually it was found that was related to this nucleoside transporter called ENT2 that allows it to cross through membranes and get into cell nuclei and bind DNA and inhibit DNA repair.“Once we’ve realised that the antibody was inhibiting DNA repair, then we started putting it onto cancer cells with defects in DNA repair. And then we found the antibody by itself would kill those cancer cells. But if the antibody is exposed to a normal cell with normal DNA repair, that cell does just fine.”Human trials are set to begin in the middle of next year.
NATASHA ROBINSONHEALTH EDITOR
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