Iksuda Therapeutics Ltd. disclosed the design of a novel, effective and safe antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), IKS-012, for the potential treatment of folate receptor α (FRα)-positive cancers.
Avacta Life Sciences (Avacta Group plc) presented preclinical data on AVA-6103, a second-generation Precision peptide-drug conjugate, being developed for the potential treatment of cancer. AVA-6103 was developed using the company’s proprietary Precision technology incorporating a dipeptide specifically cleaved by fibroblast activation protein α (FAPα) leading to tumor-specific delivery of exatecan directly into the tumor cells.
Researchers from Vrise Therapeutics Inc. and Vegen Therapeutics Pvt Ltd. presented preclinical data for VRTX-531, an allosteric inhibitor of ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase 1 (USP1), being developed for the treatment of cancer.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a low 5-year survival rate of <12%. Even though KRAS is mutated in about 88% of PDACs, the KRAS G12C mutation is rare, limiting the use of KRAS G12C inhibitors. Hence, there is a need for pan-RAS inhibitors to cover the broad RAS mutation spectrum in PDAC.
The c-MYB oncogene plays a key role in hematopoietic cell differentiation and proliferation. Genetic abnormalities and dysregulation of MYB have been found in several cancers, including adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) (80% of cases), making it an attractive druggable target for ACC treatment.
PARP1 is critical for repairing DNA single-strand breaks. First-generation PARP1/2 inhibitors have proven effective in the treatment of tumors with mutations in the essential homologous recombination repair (HR) genes including BRCA mutations. However, hematological toxicity associated with PARP2 emphasizes the need to find second-generation compounds with better safety profiles.
Researchers from Abbisko Therapeutics Inc. presented the preclinical characterization of ABSK-141, a potent bioavailable small-molecule KRAS G12D inhibitor.
Researchers from Astrazeneca plc recently reported preclinical data for AZD-3470, a second-generation MTA-cooperative PRMT5 inhibitor currently in early clinical development for the treatment of patients with MTAP-deficient solid tumors (NCT06130553) and hematological cancers (NCT06137144).
Researchers from Mariana Oncology Inc. reported preclinical data on MC-339, a DLL3-targeting macrocyclic peptide in several tumor models. Delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) is overexpressed on the cell surface of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) and metastatic melanoma.
Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors are commonly used in the treatment of hematological cancers. However, approximately 67% of patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) develop resistance to acalabrutinib and ibrutinib due to mutations in BTK, initially most often C481S.