In recent years, the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors to the oncolytic pipeline has been a significant breakthrough in cancer treatment, but unfortunately some tumors respond only minimally. Besides CTLA-4, and since the approval of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, only the anti-LAG3 strategy (relatlimab, Bristol Myers Squibb Co.) has been good enough to reach the market. In a session dealing with emerging checkpoints beyond PD-1, CTLA-4 and LAG3, Drew Rasco from the START Center for Cancer Care depicted a new player on the ground of immunotherapeutic options.
Sookmyung Women’s University has described histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, inflammation, autoimmune diseases and fibrosis.
Beigene Ltd. has divulged 4-(aminomethyl)-6-(1-methyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl) isoquinolin-1 (2H)-one derivatives acting as protein arginine N-methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Insilico Medicine IP Ltd. has identified heteroaromatic compounds acting as membrane-associated tyrosine- and threonine-specific Cdc2-inhibitory kinase (PKMYT1) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Duality Biologics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. has synthesized antibody-drug conjugates comprising anti-GPC3 antibodies covalently linked to exatecan derivatives through a linker. They are reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Biotheryx Inc. has disclosed PROTAC compounds comprising an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase binding moiety covalently linked to a SOS1 targeting moiety via linker.
Sotio Biotech AS, a company owned by PPF Group, has entered into a license and option agreement with Synaffix BV, a Lonza company, to develop next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of solid tumors.
At the AACR-NCI-EORTC meeting in Boston, Aurigene Oncology Ltd. reported their research on paralogue selective degraders of SMARCA2 (AU-SM2-1) and SMARCA4 (AU-SM4-1).
Cancer treatments for targeting tumor amplifications lag behind those targeting point mutations – and part of the reason may be that amplifications often reside on extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA). Since ecDNA was first described back in 1965 as minute chromatin bodies in brain cancer cells, the use of large-scale DNA sequencing techniques has revealed the presence of ecDNA across a wide range of cancer types. “The circular structure of ecDNA is associated with increased proto-oncogenic capacity in comparison to linear amplifications. Another key feature is that ecDNA does not contain centromeres,” Roel Verhaak, from Yale School of Medicine, told the audience in a session at the 2023 AACR-NCI-EORTC Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Boston.
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