On November 13, 2019 Moleculin Biotech, Inc., (Nasdaq: MBRX) ("Moleculin" or the "Company"), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of drug candidates targeting highly resistant tumors, reported it has begun preclinical testing of its drug candidate, WP1122, which it believes may present a new approach to treating highly glycolytic tumors like pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma (Press release, Moleculin, NOV 13, 2019, View Source [SID1234551156]).
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Moleculin Biotech, Inc. is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development of a broad portfolio of oncology drug candidates for the treatment of highly resistant tumors. (PRNewsfoto/Moleculin Biotech, Inc.)
"WP1122 represents an opportunity to attack the metabolism of cancer by exploiting the Warburg principle, which explains that some tumors are highly dependent on glycolysis, a specific metabolism of glucose, for growth and survival," commented Walter Klemp, Moleculin’s Chairman and CEO. "What this means in practice is that tumors are vulnerable by being highly dependent on glucose availability. Cancer cells often consume up to 18 times as much glucose as their healthy normal cells’ neighbors, suggesting that we may be able to starve tumors by supplying them with glucose decoys that would inhibit glucose-based energy production. However, until the creation of WP1122, glucose decoys like 2-deoxy-D-glucose (‘2-DG’) lacked the drug-like properties to be effective, primarily because of rapid metabolism and a very short circulation time in the body, which then limits desired organ and tumor uptake."
Dr. Don Picker, Chief Science Officer for Moleculin, added: "WP1122 is a prodrug of 2-DG that has been shown in animal models to significantly increase the half-life of 2-DG and allows for increased uptake to targeted organs and tumors like the brain tumors and pancreatic cancer. Recent discoveries now also suggest that such a glucose decoy could critically impact a process known as glycosylation and glycan formation and that this type of activity can directly impact the function of PD-L1, enabling increased immune system response to cancer cells. We have been working on the clinical formulation of WP1122 for some time, and we are eager to now be taking the next key steps to getting WP1122 into the clinic."