Rakovina Therapeutics Inc (TSX-V:RKV), which is developing new cancer treatments based on novel DNA-damage response (DDR) technologies, presented promising research results on the company’s kt-3000 series, at the European Workshop on Cell Death (EWCD) in Fiuggi, Italy.
The spotlight was on the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company’s kt-3000 series, a novel class of DNA-damage response inhibitors, which the company is progressing towards human clinical trials.
“It's a big deal to be invited to give a talk versus a poster and highlights the interest in the novel mechanism of the kt-3000 series across the medical and pharmaceutical community,” Rakovina Therapeutics executive chairman Jeff Bacha told Proactive.
“Based on our research results, we believe our kt-3000 dual-function DNA-damage response inhibitors represent a novel approach to combat a range of cancers that fail to respond to treatment or have become resistant to currently available therapies.”
Rakovina’s Louise Ramos, a PhD student, gave a comprehensive presentation on KT-3000 in Ewing sarcoma, a rare and aggressive bone and soft tissue cancer that occurs in children and young adults, at the six-day EWCD workshop, which started on June 4.
Ramos presented data that showed that the dual functional kt-3000 prototype lead candidate is more effective against Ewing sarcoma tumor cells than either a PARP inhibitor or HDAC inhibitor alone.
Significantly, studies in mice have showed that the lead compound effectively reduced lung metastases in mice inoculated with Ewing sarcoma tumor cells.
Rakovina president and chief scientific officer Mads Daugaard told Proactive in an interview that it has turned out to be “very exciting” because Ewing sarcomas were “very, very sensitive to kt-3000 type molecules.”
"The kt-3000 series compounds were designed with an aim of achieving synergistic PARP+HDAC activity against treatment of resistant tumors while improving safety and tolerability of treatment," said Daugaard.
“We believe that this profile offers potential as a new treatment for tumors traditionally resistant to therapy, particularly in the recurrent disease setting for Ewing sarcoma and major cancers such as breast and ovarian cancer that has become resistant to treatment with FDA-approved PARP inhibitors.”
Rakovina has received research funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program for its work on kt-3000 as a potential treatment for Ewing sarcoma.
A few years ago, Rakovina was also invited to join the high-profile C$1.3 million research program funded by St. Baldrick’s Foundation aimed at developing new treatments for Ewing sarcoma. Professor Daugaard is a principal researcher in the project along with Professor Paul Sorensen at the University of British Columbia.
St. Baldrick’s Foundation is one of the largest non-government funders of childhood cancer research grants.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive