Researchers from Cogent Biosciences Inc. presented the preclinical profile of CGT-1263, a pan-KRAS-directed compound that binds both ON and OFF KRAS conformations without affecting HRAS or NRAS.
Researchers from Elpiscience Biopharmaceuticals Inc. hypothesized that dual targeting of the TL1A/DR3 and IL-23 signaling pathways with a single bispecific antibody would exert superior efficacy by reshaping the immune landscape in disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The company has developed a bispecific antibody targeting both TL1A/DR3 and IL-23p19 – ES-302 – for the treatment of IBD.
Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii are both major contributors to the global antimicrobial resistance crisis, causing rapidly progressive and often severe infections. Researchers from Vaxdyn SL and collaborators presented efficacy data for K-Vax, an inactivated, LPS-null whole-cell A. baumannii-based vaccine engineered to display conserved K. pneumoniae outer-membrane proteins on the bacterial cell surface.
Xuanzhu Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. reported positive data from a local phase III study of dirozalkib (Xuan Fei Ning), an ALK inhibitor approved in China to treat patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.
Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd reported early clinical signals across its next-generation immuno-oncology pipeline, including response rates of up to 71% in metastatic colorectal cancer and 45.5% in hepatocellular carcinoma, at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Diego.
Selective inhibition of Werner syndrome helicase (WRN) has been shown to trigger extensive DNA damage and cell death specifically in microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) cancers, highlighting WRN as a tumor-selective target with potential for precision oncology approaches beyond immunotherapy. Researchers from Eikon Therapeutics Inc. presented the preclinical profile of EIK-1005, a WRN inhibitor.
Researchers from Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. described the preclinical efficacy of XPC-837 in models of Dravet syndrome, a severe developmental and epileptic encephalopathy most commonly caused by de novo loss of function mutations in the SCN1A gene.
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. presented data this week at the annual American Academy of Neurology conference regarding allele-specific antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) that specifically target the mutant p.A53T allele from the SNCA gene while preserving the expression of the wild-type allele. The mutant allele is associated with increased risk of early-onset Parkinson’s disease (PD) and current ASOs target SNCA regardless of its mutation status.
Despite the success of immunotherapy, it is still limited due to the poor control of which T cells are activated and how strong and how long they are activated. Next-generation T-cell activators should address this limitation by engagement of selective T-cell subsets, allowing stronger control and durable responses. Ipsen SA has presented data regarding their T-cell activator IPN-01203, which is bispecific and selective for Vβ6 and Vβ10 (Vβ6/10) TCR-expressing T cells, alongside with IL-15 receptor coactivation.
When a tumor migrates and colonizes another tissue or organ, it can be identified as a metastasis, but its origin is not always clear. Now, a study based on machine learning has identified DNA-methylation patterns that reveal the type of tissue a cancer comes from when the primary tumor cannot be found. This technique could help guide more specific treatments for patients with cancers of unknown primary, who today often receive broad, nontargeted chemotherapy.