Almac and Queen’s Belfast develop cancer treatment
Uses anti-angiogenic potential of the natural protein FKBPL
Scientists at Almac and the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast have developed a new treatment for cancer, which rather than attacking tumours directly, prevents the growth of new blood vessels in tumours, starving them of oxygen and nutrients and thereby preventing their growth.
Targeting tumour blood vessels is not a new concept but this anti-angiogenic therapy, based on a natural protein first discovered at Queen’s University, attacks the blood vessels using an entirely different pathway and therefore could be useful for treating tumours which do not respond to or which are resistant to current therapies of this type.
The research is reported in this month’s Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Almac Discovery is developing the drug candidate and expects to start clinical trials within the next year.
The paper describes the anti-angiogenic activity of the natural protein, FKBPL, and peptides derived from it. Both the full-length protein and the smaller peptides disrupt the tumour blood supply, leading to effective inhibition of tumour growth in models of prostate and breast cancer. Almac Discovery, an independent division of the Almac Group, based in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, is developing one of the active peptides for the treatment of solid tumours.
Current therapies are all based on disrupting the activity of one growth factor, VEGF.
Professor Tracy Robson from the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s, said: ‘By understanding the anti-angiogenic potential of the natural protein, FKBPL, we have been able to develop small peptide-based drugs that could be delivered to prevent tumour growth by cutting off their blood supply. This is highly effective in models of prostate and breast cancer.’
She added: ‘However, this also has the potential for the treatment of any solid tumour and we’re excited about continuing to work with Almac Discovery as this drug enters clinical trials.’
Dr Stephen Barr, president and managing director of Almac Discovery, said: ‘This is a first class example of a collaboration between a university and industry to produce a novel approach to cancer therapy that has a real chance of helping patients.’
