Health sciences firm PreveCeutical Medical Inc (CSE:PREV, OTCQB:PRVCF) updated on progress on its R&D programme based on the venom of the Caribbean blue scorpion, saying it had now begun the second phase.
The firm is developing innovative preventive therapies using organic and nature identical products. Venom from the scorpion has been shown to impact aggressive cancers, such as breast and brain.
Phase 1 yielded promising results and the PreveCeutical team identified eight peptides being of a size and nature that will allow the firm to re-design and synthesise them.
Enhancing biostability
The second phase of the programme involves the re-design of those peptides, with the goal of enhancing their biostability, while maintaining their potency against well-characterised and defined targets associated with brain cancer.
PreveCeutical is using state-of-the-art computer technology for the studies, against known brain cancer targets, it said.
Each novel peptide candidate will then be purified and fully characterised.
After generating a comprehensive library of such candidates, the firm will enter Phase 3, and begin to screen the peptides in cell-based glioblastoma (aggressive form of brain cancer) models.
Shares in Toronto were unchanged at C$0.035.