On Nobember 8, 2017 Verseon, a technology-based pharmaceutical company employing a computer-driven platform to develop a diverse drug pipeline, reported its anticancer drug candidates at the BIO-Europe conference in Berlin yesterday (Press release, Verseon, NOV 8, 2017, View Source [SID1234521718]). Dr. Anirban Datta, Director of Discovery Biology, presented preclinical studies across a range of cancer cell lines, which show that the Company’s compounds may be especially well-suited for the treatment of multidrug resistant solid tumors.
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One of the most common ways in which cancer cells render chemotherapies ineffective is by triggering an overproduction of transport proteins that expel many organic substances, including drugs. The preclinical data presented at BIO-Europe demonstrate that Verseon’s drug candidates are significantly less susceptible to this mode of tumor resistance. In vitro studies furthermore show that the Company’s compounds maintain efficacy across multiple cell lines that are resistant to common chemotherapy agents.
Verseon’s drug candidates inhibit microtubule formation by targeting tubulin. They act against cancer cells by suppressing blood vessel growth and by interrupting the cell division cycle preventing mitosis, both proven treatment strategies for cancer. Lead candidates also show pharmacokinetics suitable for administration as infusion, an important prerequisite for inclusion in infusion-based chemotherapy regimens.
"There is an ongoing need for anticancer agents less susceptible to tumor resistance that can be used in conjunction with existing and new drugs," said Dr. Datta. "The fact that our tubulin inhibitors are mostly unaffected by major transporters could change the standard of care for cancer chemotherapy. In particular, using transporter overexpression as a biomarker to drive treatment decisions could lead to more effective precision second-line therapy."
About Verseon’s oncology program
Verseon plans to use its promising class of tubulin inhibitors to target multidrug resistant cancers. Several drug candidates show potency in functional and cellular assays. Furthermore, Verseon’s inhibitors maintain their efficacy across multiple chemotherapy-resistant cancer cell lines and are mostly unaffected by the overexpression of common transporters, a primary source of multidrug resistance.