Phylogica receives research grant

THE ROADHOUSE PHARMACY: Phylogica Ltd (ASX: PYC), in conjunction with its partner, The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), has been awarded a $546,420 Linkage Grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to identify Phylomer peptides inhibiting tumour metastasis.

The grant will be administered by University of Queensland with Phylogica as a commercial partner.

“This grant strongly supports Phylogica strategic focus to develop Phylomer-based therapies against high-value cancer targets,” Phylogica CEO Dr Richard Hopkins said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The outcomes of this collaboration will enable us to accelerate our oncology programs, which are aimed at delivering potent Phylomer drugs inside cells.”

In this project, Phylogica explained it and IMB will exploit the unique structural diversity of Phylogica’s Phylomer libraries for screening against a critical protein complex involved in cancer metastasis.

It is centred on a key intracellular ‘master switch’ protein known as SOX18, which is involved in the spread of cancer throughout the body (metastasis) via the control of blood and lymphatic vessel outgrowth.

The company claims transcription factor SOX18 is a promising anti-metastatic drug target, acting as a molecular switch that triggers the development of the entire lymphatic vasculature.

In solid tumours such as melanoma, SOX18 is re-expressed in lymphatic endothelial cells helping the cancer to spread through the lymphatic system.

Encouragingly, genetic disruption of SOX18 function in this context has been shown to protect from tumour metastasis and tumour growth, so blocking its function with Phylomers is expected to reduce the potential for metastasis.

IMB and Phylogica aim to develop a new platform to validate networks of protein interactions using Phylomer peptides as probes to inhibit specific interactions and to identify therapeutically relevant epitopes on target proteins.

Using the endothelial specific transcription factor SOX18 as a target, the study will apply this concept to this family of proteins, which have so far largely eluded pharmacological intervention.

Website: www.phylogica.com