Preclinical studies show Aqualung Therapeutic’s eNAMPT- targeting ALT-100 mAb to reduce severity of aggressive prostate cancer
TUCSON, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / January 25, 2022 / Preclinical prostate cancer (PCa] studies published in the December 17th, 2021 issue of Pharmaceuticals show Aqualung Therapeutic’s ALT-100 mAb to significantly improve overall survival and to reduce distal metastases in SCID mice implanted with human prostate cancer (PCa] cells. Aqualung Therapeutics is an early stage immunotherapeutics company with an anti-inflammatory therapeutic platform to address life-threatening unchecked inflammation.
The link between aggressive cancer behavior and innate immunity pathways, locally-produced chemokines/cytokines, and inflammation is well known in multiple cancers including PCa; the most common cancer in American men (aside from skin cancer). The American Cancer Society estimates approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. In 2022, it is anticipated there will be more than 268,000 new PCa cases and over 34,000 deaths. Despite increased understanding of PCa, there remains an unmet need to reduce PCa morbidity and mortality.
Aqualung had previously demonstrated that secreted extracellular nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase or (eNAMPT) is a highly novel potent driver of innate immunity and inflammation. The study in Pharmaceuticals confirms an earlier study published in EBIOMedicine 2021, implicatineg eNAMPT as a PCa target protein that is released in the tumor microenvironment to promote inflammation and PCa invasion. By injecting an anti-eNAMPT neutralizing antibody such as ALT-100, this study demonstrated the potential to delay the switch to aggressive PCa and potentially prevent PCa progression and metastases.
“We have long known of the importance of innate immunity and inflammation on PCa progression and the severity of human disease. The studies reported with the ALT-100 mAb are exciting as they highlight eNAMPT as a highly druggable PCa target to retard PCa invasion. This could be a significant breakthrough for those who have been diagnosed with aggressive PCa” states Edwin Posadas, MD FACP, Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program and the Medical Director of the Center for Uro-Oncology Research Excellence/Urologic Oncology Disease Research Group at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. “While this is early pre-clinical data, it is nonetheless exciting to see such a strong clinical impact of ALT-100 mAb on PCa severity, particularly with the potential for rapid translation to human clinical trials.”
About Aqualung Therapeutics Corporation
Aqualung is an early-stage biotech immunotherapeutics company which has developed an anti-inflammatory therapeutic platform for treatment of patients with life-threatening unchecked inflammation. Founded in 2016 and led by a physician-scientist, Aqualung’s science-driven approaches led to the identification of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) as a major contributor to the severity of potentially fatal inflammatory diseases. Aqualung Therapeutics has developed eNamptor™, a Next Gen platform comprised of: i) the humanized ALT 100 mAb, an eNAMPT-neutralizing monoclonal antibody; ii) eNAMPT-Plex, a plasma-based biomarker panel comprised of cytokines and eNAMPT, which predicts ARDS mortality; and iii) NAMPT-Gene, a genotyping assay that identifies individuals genetic variants that predispose to ARDS risk and death. In addition to ARDS and ventilator-induced lung injury, the pipeline of ALT-100 mAb indications currently includes radiation-induced injuries, intrauterine infections during pregnancy (chorioamnionitis), prostate cancer, pulmonary hypertension, autoimmune disorders (IBD, SLE) and both pulmonary and hepatic fibrosis (NASH). Each of these potentially fatal inflammatory conditions exhibit significant unmet medical needs for therapeutics to reduce morbidity and mortality. For additional information about the company, please visit www.aqualungtherapeutics.com.