Alanine-serine-cysteine transporter 2 (ASCT2) is a glutamine (Gln) transporter that is required for cell proliferation and is overexpressed in tumors such as non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Researchers from China Pharmaceutical University have reported on the discovery and preclinical characterization of a novel series of ASCT2 inhibitors that led to the identification two lead compounds.
Kazia Therapeutics Ltd. stopped its two-part paxalisib plus radiotherapy phase I trial early based on positive safety and promising clinical responses in patients with phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway mutation brain metastases from solid tumors. The company plans to meet with the U.S. FDA to discuss a pivotal registrational trial.
In its second big collaboration of the past six months, privately held Tentarix Biotherapeutics LP plans to discover and develop biologics for treating oncology and immunology indications with Abbvie Inc. The deal comes at a time of change at Abbvie, which is getting a new CEO, watching the marketplace erosion of bestselling Humira (adalimumab) and digesting two major acquisitions at a cost of billions.
Blueprint Medicines Corp. found a new U.S. commercialization home for Gavreto (pralsetinib) through an agreement with Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. potentially worth $117.5 million, now that Roche Holding AG has relinquished all rights. The product, a once-daily oral small-molecule kinase inhibitor of wild-type RET (rearranged during transfection) and oncogenic RET fusions, received accelerated approval in 2020 by the U.S. FDA, under priority review and with orphan drug designation, to treat adults with metastatic RET fusion-positive non-small-cell lung cancer.
Work at Beijing Earthwise Technology Co. Ltd. has led to the discovery of new protein arginine N-methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) inhibitors potentially useful for the treatment of cancer.
An Allorion Therapeutics (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd. patent discloses aminoheteroaryl CDK4/cyclin D1 inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Celgene Corp. has identified substituted imidazopyrazine compounds characterized as interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 3 (IRAK-3; IRAK-M) ligands and thus reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and inflammatory disorders.
Quinoxaline derivatives acting as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase α (PI3Kα) (H1047R mutant) and/or (E545K mutant) inhibitors have been described in a Black Diamond Therapeutics Inc. patent.
Shanghai Apeiron Biotechnology Co. Ltd. has patented new protein arginine N-methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Researchers from Chonnam National University presented novel a doxycycline (Doxy)-inducible gene switch system in attenuated Salmonella typhimurium, one of the bacterial strains that has been previously shown to selectively colonize and multiply in tumors, leading to oxygen deprivation, excessive nutrient leakage, and an antitumor immune response.