Novogen has anti-cancer drug Anisina potential confirmed
THE ROADHOUSE PHARMACY: Novogen (ASX: NRT) announced it had reached an important milestone in the development of one of the company’s oncology pipeline drug candidates, Anisina (ATM-3507).
The company said a recent study has confirmed the concept that comprehensive destruction of a cancer cell’s cytoskeleton can deliver a powerful anti-cancer effect.
Novogen explained the cytoskeleton (cell skeletal structure) is a common and validated target for anti-cancer therapy and that commonly used drugs in chemotherapy target the cytoskeleton by destabilising one of its two key components, the microtubules.
These drugs are known as ‘anti-mitotics’ and include the taxanes (paclitaxel, docetaxel) and the vinca alkaloids (vincristine, vinblastine).
Collectively, these anti-mitotics have dominated chemotherapy for the past 30 years.
Novogen claims Anisina targets a specific protein known as tropomyosin Tpm3.1 (previously known as Tm5NM1).
Tpm3.1 is a protein that provides structural integrity to the microfilaments of a cell.
It is present in both normal cells and cancer cells, the difference being that cancer cells have an increased reliance on this form of tropomyosin to survive.
Novogen referenced earlier announcements, which declared anti-tropomyosin drugs in combination with anti-mitotic drugs boost the cancer-killing ability of a drug such as vincristine 20-fold in vitro against neuroblastoma cancer cells.
The company said the next crucial step was to confirm that this combined anti-cancer effect was transferable to animals, which it said the report it has received confirms.
“This was the crucial step we needed to bring Anisina into the clinic,” Novogen anti-tropomyosin program director Justine Stehn said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“We now are proceeding to bring Anisina into the clinic in 2016 into both adults and children.
“In adults we will be looking to use Anisina to potentiate the anti-cancer effect of anti-mitotics in cancers such as prostate, ovarian, lung, breast, colorectal and haematological cancers, as well as in cancers such as melanoma where anti-mitotics currently show little benefit.
“But what particularly excites us from a CODA perspective is the promise that this technology holds in being able to achieve a potent anti-cancer effect in children where anti-mitotics currently are widely used, but being able to use lower dosages of anti-mitotics that hopefully will lower the risk of leaving children with side-effects with life-long consequences.
Website: www.novogen.com