Researchers from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University and affiliated organizations presented the discovery of novel tubulin polymerization inhibitors as potential anticancer drug candidates.
A single low-dose injection with anti-DLL4 in a nonhuman primate model of acute graft-vs.-host disease (aGVHD) dramatically improved post-transplant survival, providing durable protection from otherwise lethal gastrointestinal GVHD, researchers reported in the June 28, 2023, issue of Science Translational Medicine. Blocking DLL4 specifically increased the migration of beneficial regulatory T cells into the intestines, with concomitant reduction in effector T cells, which are the main culprits in aGVHD. Ultimately, these activities effectively provided protection against T-cell-mediated damage in a nonhuman macaque primate model.
Researchers at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) Pharma GmbH & Co. KG and Vanderbilt University have described proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) compounds comprising E3 ubiquitin ligase binding moieties covalently linked to GTPase KRAS (mutant) binding moieties through a linker.
Marvel Biotechnology Inc. has divulged purine compounds acting as adenosine A2A receptor (ADORA2A) antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, depression, anxiety disorder, multiple sclerosis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, scleroderma, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Coimmune Inc. has obtained a license to target delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) with IL-18 armored chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology. The company exercised an option to obtain an exclusive license in the DLL3-targeted, allogeneic CAR-cytokine induced killer (CAR-CIK) cell therapy field to IL-18 armored CAR technology under an agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).
B cells that expressed a constellation of checkpoint inhibitors could be spurred into antitumor activity by deleting or blocking the checkpoint molecule T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain 1 (TIM-1). The findings, which were published online in Nature on June 21, 2023, suggest ways to bring B cells into the antitumor fight. More broadly, Lloyd Bod told BioWorld, his laboratory aims to “break the dogma that B cells only produce antibodies.”
Nextgen Bioscience Co. Ltd. has identified ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase family member 2 (ENPP2; autotaxin) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, fibrosis, cardiovascular, inflammatory, respiratory, metabolic, eye and renal disorders, among others.