ValiRx PLC (AIM:VAL) has announced a collaborative research initiative involving its wholly owned subsidiary, Inaphaea BioLabs Limited, and The Open University.
The project is supported by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) and aims to advance the understanding of Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer (NEPC), an aggressive and incurable form of prostate cancer.
The research will focus on analysing the subtype and drug sensitivity of 12 prostate cancer lines derived from Inaphaea’s patient-derived cell (PDC) bank.
Utilising The Open University’s expertise, the project seeks to identify markers associated with NEPC, particularly under conditions that mimic NEPC-like states.
In addition to the HEIF-funded research, ValiRx will co-sponsor a four-year PhD studentship at The Open University.
The programme, titled 'Deciphering the epigenetic vulnerabilities of neuroendocrine prostate cancer through novel patient-derived models', will further characterise these cancer cell systems and explore new epigenetic treatment opportunities.
"Inaphaea has over 30 Patient Derived Cell models from prostate cancer patients, several with RNA-Seq data available,” ValiRX chief executive Mark Ecclestone said in a statement.
“These cells have been stabilised for in vitro passage, but they are not characterised in terms of cancer subtype and drug sensitivity.
“Collecting and publishing this information is essential to enable the use of these cell lines by the scientific community. Hence, characterisation of the Inaphaea prostate PDCs could add significant value to this collection and generate an invaluable research tool for the NEPC community.”
Francesco Crea, an Open University professor of cancer pharmacology, added: "Neuroendocrine prostate cancer is a newly recognised disease with no effective therapy and median survival time shorter than one year.
“It is estimated that a fifth of advanced prostate cancer patients will develop NEPC.
“Hence it is of paramount importance to study the biology of this aggressive disease and to identify viable therapeutic targets.”