AdAlta Ltd (ASX:1AD) has teamed up with clinical-stage biotech GPCR Therapeutics to investigate a new cancer treatment approach.
Together, the healthcare companies will evaluate AdAlta’s i-body technology in combination with beta blockers — all in an effort to better inhibit an overexpressed receptor found in more than 23 cancers.
If studies are successful, AdAlta will have the first option to licence and further commercialise any products resulting from the collaboration.
Novel approach
AdAlta’s technology will be scrutinised next to a series of generic beta blocker molecules, known to inhibit an important class of drug targets called G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).
One of those GPCRS is called CXCR4, a receptor that’s overexpressed in multiple cancers. As such, finding an effective CXCR4 inhibitor represents a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity.
AdAlta owns a panel of i-bodies that inhibit CXCR4 signalling in different ways. The panel includes AD-214, AdAlta’s lead drug candidate, which has progressed to clinical development for fibrotic diseases.
However, GPCR Therapeutics has discovered that combining CXCR4 inhibitors with molecules that inhibit other GPCRs associated with CXCR4 in cancer can result in superior inhibition, opening up a new market opportunity.
What’s to come?
Under the collaboration, AdAlta will supply a panel of its CXCR4 inhibiting i-bodies.
GPCR Therapeutics will evaluate those i-bodies in combination with a series of generic beta-blocker molecules selected from its own platforms, which inhibit a GPCR known as B2AR.
The upcoming studies will evaluate the effect of the combined CXCR4-B2AR inhibition on in vitro cell signalling, cell migration and cell killing.
If successful, GPCR Therapeutics will evaluate the combined inhibition of these compounds in vivo in mouse cancer models.
Expanding i-bodies’ commercial use
AdAlta CEO and managing director Tim Oldham said his company was delighted to announce the collaboration with GPCR Therapeutics.
“Through the program, we hope to demonstrate that AdAlta’s i-bodies, when combined with other GPCR inhibitors can have enhanced therapeutic outcomes in cancer, in comparison with the typical approach of inhibiting individual GPCRs.
“This collaboration is consistent with our strategy of expanding the commercial use of our i-bodies in a cost-effective way.”
GPCR Therapeutics CEO Dong Seung Seen said his company was pleased to work with AdAlta’s team to explore synergies.
“We believe combining AdAlta’s unique i-body technology with our innovative CXCR4 combination therapy-based approach could lead to best-in-class anticancer drugs,” he explained.