RE:RE:Sortilin is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer too The Sortilin/Progranulin axis is clearly becoming a hot topic of research in cancerology, but it seems its exact role in the normal cell is complex and still ill known, outside of the central nervous system.
So the consequences/safety of directly targeting sortilin with inhibitors are yet unclear. It will take time and significant risks to explore such a path.
On the other hand, Thera's platform targets it just for the purpose of internalizing drugs... that is a much safer pathway.
And, for all I know, they have a broad patent on that mechanism, e.g.
https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2017088058&_cid=P20-KF65J7-39215-1
and also one more specific to vasculogenic mimicry
https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2020037434&tab=PCTDESCRIPTION&_cid=P20-KF65J7-39215-1
Wino115 wrote: Fantastic find. Published back in May. None of the authors are from the Montreal profs who came up with the THTX Sort1+ approach, so new reasearchers in the area.
This sort of worries me in the sense it may send other companies off chasing to try to target it. So my question is, would THTX have a patent in targeting Sortilin for cancer drugs? Can you patent something like that and essentially control the market in that targeting area? If not, how easy would it be for someone to come up with an alternative way to use Sortilin to get in the cancer cells?
I have no clue on any of those questions but hope they have some kind of protection besides just a head start.
Spartrap wrote: I just noticed this article from the September issue of American Journal of Pathology:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002944020302893
"Pancreatic cancer has a dismal prognosis, and there is no targeted therapy against this malignancy."
"Results Sortilin Is Overexpressed in Pancreatic Cancer Cells"
"the percentage of cases with high sortilin expression in epithelial cells was higher in cancer samples than in normal samples (51% vs 23%, respectively; P = 0.0014)"
"Sortilin Is Necessary for Pancreatic Cancer Cell Adhesion, Migration, and Invasion"
"The current study is the first to report sortilin expression and function in human pancreatic cancer."
"High invasion is a hallmark of pancreatic cancer that is directly responsible for the high mortality rate of the disease."
"Intriguingly, it was also found that sortilin levels were higher in female pancreatic cancer patients compared with male patients. "
"In conclusion, our study reveals sortilin as a potential therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer, and the clinical value of targeting sortilin should be further investigated."
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Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly, representing 7% of all cancer deaths in the US. About 57,600 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020 (source: cancer.org)
Needless to say, this is very bullishfor the SORT1+ platform.