Studies have shown that Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP-2) suppresses tumor growth and tumor-associated angiogenesis. Currently, the main obstacle in using TIMP-2 as a biologic therapeutic has been the inability to produce sufficient quantities of the protein for testing and development.
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disorder affecting 1 per 3000 individuals on average. Patients develop a variety of developmental benign and malignant pathologies. The most common tumors associated with NF1 are peripheral sheath tumors, including neurofibromas, optical gliomas, and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors.
Mutations in the Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) gene are among the most common oncogenic drivers in human cancers, affecting nearly a third of all solid tumors. Point mutations in the KRAS gene most frequently affect amino acid position 12, resulting in the substitution of the native glycine (G) residue for other amino acids (e.g., aspartic acid (D), valine (V), cysteine (C) or arginine (R)).
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have long been used to treat a variety of inflammatory conditions. Many of these conditions, such as cancer or arthritis, require long term use of the NSAIDs due to the chronic nature of the disease. However, the NSAIDs in current use have toxicities associated with their long-term use that hinder their use for these chronic conditions.
Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is a cytokine receptor which belongs in the receptor tyrosine kinase class III. FLT3 is expressed on the surface of many hematopoietic progenitor cells and plays an important role in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell survival and proliferation. It is often overexpressed in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and is frequently mutated in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The standard therapies for ALL and AML are still suboptimal for many patients, especially pediatric. In certain types of ALL or AML, the survival rate is less than 40 and
Heptamethine cyanines are among the most widely used near-IR fluorophores. The near-IR range (between about 650 nm and 900 nm) is very useful for imaging applications due to the absence of background autofluorescence. Despite extensive use, many of these fluorophores suffer from chemical instability. Specifically, most of the current and commonly used fluorophores undergo a phenoxy to thiol exchange reaction in the presence of primary thiols. This exchange reaction is problematic during conjugation reactions of cysteine containing macromolecules.
The proto-oncogene c-Myc is deregulated and overexpressed in ~70% of all cancers. Thus, c-Myc is an attractive therapeutic target since disrupting c-Myc activity could be used as pan-chemotherapy. Beyond cancer, Myc is also a positive effector of tissue inflammation, and its function has been implicated in the pathophysiology of heart failure. Because c-Myc is a transcription factor, a rationally designed small molecule targeting c-Myc would be required to exhibit significant specificity.
The clinical promise of cancer immunotherapy relies on the premise that the immune system can recognize and eliminate tumor cells identified as non-self. The success of cancer immunotherapy is limited by tumor immune evasion, preventing long-lasting tumor control. Recent evidence suggests that certain anticancer therapies can alter the biology of the surviving cell population to restore their sensitivity to T-cell-mediated lysis and help treat patients.
RNA interference (RNAi) is a naturally occurring post-transcriptional gene regulation process that represses the expression of specific genes. Exploiting endogenous RNAi by externally-delivered small-interfering RNA (siRNA) is a promising therapeutic for the treatment of various diseases representing several major unmet medical needs.
Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 2 (TDP2) is an enzyme that playings a critical role in repairing nucleic acid lesions, namely by repairing trapped DNA cleavage complexes. TDP2 repairs topoisomerase (TOP2)-mediated DNA damage induced by chemotherapeutic agents and removes endogenous TOP2-DNA cleavage complexes. Further, TDP2 deficiency potentiates the antiproliferative activity of TOP2 inhibitors. This suggest that combination therapies consisting of TDP2 and TOP2 inhibitors have a synergistic effect on tumor tissues.