This technology is a small molecule drug that increases surface expression of bladder cancer antigens to increase the efficacy of FDA-approved antibody-drug conjugate therapies.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) deliver drug payloads, such as chemotherapeutics, to a subset of cells based on the antibody’s recognition of its specific cell surface antigen, enabling higher doses delivered to the patient with fewer side effects. The FDA has recently approved two ADC therapies for the treatment of metastatic bladder cancer. However, the efficacy of these ADCs to kill cancer cells is limited when a tumor expresses low levels of the corresponding surface tumor antigen, which can occur as cancer cells adapt to evade treatment. Thus, new therapeutic avenues are needed to improve the efficacy of ADC therapies and expand treatment opportunities for patients with otherwise ADC-resistant tumors.
This technology is a small molecule therapeutic that reprograms cancer cells to increase their sensitivity to existing antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapies for metastatic bladder cancer. This small molecule increases the expression levels of specific tumor antigens on the surface of cancer cells, facilitating broad recognition of cancer cells by the drug-carrying antibodies. As such, a greater proportion of bladder cancers, even those with low levels of tumor antigen, can be altered to express the tumor antigen, thereby increasing delivery of the chemotherapeutic drug to maximize cancer-killing potential.
This technology has been validated in human patient-derived bladder cancer organoids. Combination therapy with this small molecule increased the sensitivity of bladder cancer organoids to the FDA-approved ADC, Enfortumab vedotin, compared to treatment with this ADC alone.
Patent Pending
IR CU24095
Licensing Contact: Joan Martinez