One of the current challenges of immunotherapy is the hunt for good targets, and the Claudins – a family of roughly two dozen transmembrane proteins – would appear to have a lot going for them. “Some Claudins distribute in a tissue-specific manner, and malignant transformation causes their exposition,” Cinta Hierro told the audience at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2024 Congress. “Others are rarely expressed in healthy tissue.”
Cincera Therapeutics Pty Ltd. and Monash University co-presented the phenotypic drug discovery of CIN-244, a novel MRTF/SRF pathway inhibitor reported to be potentially useful for the treatment of fibrotic disease, particularly liver, lung and renal fibrosis.
Researchers from Kyowa Kirin Co. Ltd. presented preclinical data for the novel bispecific CD40-EpCAM antibody KK-2269, being developed for the treatment of cancer.
Researchers from Ajou University presented data from a preclinical study that aimed to assess the potential of using the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor LMK-235 for the prevention of diabetic muscle atrophy.
There has been growing interest in developing novel cannabinoid CB1 receptor inverse agonists to treat obesity and its metabolic comorbidities. At the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) meeting, Inversago Pharma Inc. presented data on their CB1 receptor inverse agonist INV-347. The compound was shown to reduce body weight in diet-induced obese mice.
Recent findings have proposed the combination of two agonist mechanisms – glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) – to have a synergistic effect for the treatment of obesity and its associated comorbidities, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and severe hypertriglyceridemia.
Immvira Group Co.’s oncolytic herpes simplex virus product, MVR-T3011, showed early efficacy via intravesical administration in patients with high-risk BCG-failure non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.
UL16 binding protein 6 (ULBP6) is a molecule belonging to the stress-induced NKG2D ligand family and its expression is up-regulated on the surface of cancerous cells, binding to the immune-activating NKG2D receptor on natural killer (NK) and T cells, thus promoting immune evasion.
Metastatic solid tumors may be curable now. Among the most profound results presented over the weekend at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2024 Congress were the 10-year data from the Checkmate-067 and Keynote-006 trials, the phase III trials that tested Opdivo (nivolumab, Bristol Myers Squibb Co.) and Keytruda (pembrolizumab, Merck & Co. Inc.) as first-line agents in advanced or metastatic melanoma.
Despite heightened political tensions, both Chinese and U.S. industry officials are working to strengthen ties in the health care and biotech sector, including launching strategic initiatives to foster Sino-U.S. biotech investment and M&A deals. As one of the initiatives, representatives from Hong Kong, China and the U.S. convened at the Bio Hong Kong 2024 conference to launch a global health care M&A and financial investment alliance, along with fostering company and talent growth in Hong Kong.
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