This technology uses a modified form of ATF5 to inhibit the proteins CEBPB, CEBPD and CCDC6, which have been shown to enhance cancer cell survival, proliferation, and migration.
Despite major advances in cancer research, many tumor types still have an unfavorable prognosis and are difficult to treat with traditional chemotherapeutics. Thus, in recent years, drug development has largely focused on inhibiting specific genes that have been identified as being important to cancer cell growth. The genes CEBPB, CEBPD and CCDC6 have previously been shown to play active roles in the regulation of cancer cell proliferation, survival and migration, and interference with the expression of these genes has proved to have a detrimental effect on cancer cells. However, there is of yet no therapeutic approach to target these genes for cancer treatment.
This technology uses the basic leucine zipper transcription factor (ATF5) as a target for cancer treatment. Specifically, the use of a cell-penetrating dominant-negative form of ATF5 is used to target CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta and delta (CEBPD and CEBPB), and coiled-coil domain containing 6 (CCDC6), which act to enhance cancer cell survival. By binding to complementary proteins to form an inactive heterodimer, these truncated proteins act as specific inhibitors for such partners, inducing cancer cell death. This technology also suggests that the dominant-negative forms of the enhancer proteins CEBPD, CEBPB and CCDC6 themselves may also represent potential anti-cancer drugs.
This technology has been validated in human PC3 prostate tumor cells.
Patent Pending
IR 2686, CU18385
Licensing Contact: Jerry Kokoshka
