Dr. Makarand Jawadekar reports
PREVECEUTICAL ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION FROM ITS DESIGN, SYNTHESIS AND PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF NOVEL DESIGNED PEPTIDES DERIVED FROM CARIBBEAN BLUE SCORPION VENOM IN A CELL-BASED BRAIN CANCER MODEL
Preveceutical Medical Inc. has successfully completed the design, synthesis and preliminary evaluation of key peptides from its scorpion venom-derived peptide research and development program. The peptide program is expected to enable the company to develop its own proprietary Nature Identical peptide therapeutics, which are intended for therapeutic applications. Preveceutical's initial therapeutic focus was to understand the activities of such peptides in cell-based brain cancer models.
In the first stages of the peptide program, Preveceutical's research partner successfully identified four peptides that individually inhibit the activity of a target protein implicit in the progression of certain brain cancers (see news release dated March 11, 2019).
In the final stage of the peptide program, the four peptides were further tested in a number of in vitro studies in certain brain cancer cell lines and also in a patient-derived neural oncosphere cell line of a brain cancer. Screening of the four peptides in an invasion assay model showed that they had ability to reduce the invasion potential in brain cancer cell types (see news release dated April 10, 2019). The company believes that this is an important development given that invasion is a key driver of the aggressiveness, rapid spread and poor prognosis commonly associated with certain brain cancers.
From these studies, two peptides showed the most potential for further development as therapeutic agents in the management of certain brain cancers. These two lead peptides were able to inhibit the activity of the target protein, which resulted in an obvious slowing of invasion, with the reduction in invasion particularly being seen in the oncospheres. The two peptides also displayed modest suppression of an important cancer cell marker, which has a role in promoting cancer spread/metastasis and is also associated with drug and immune resistance in brain cancer. Both lead candidates are a fraction of the size and structural complexity of Chlorotoxin, a scorpion venom-derived peptide known to target brain cancer cells from scientific literature.
Preveceutical is now accelerating the process of evaluating options on how best to progress the two lead peptide drug candidates, which may include partnering to expedite their preclinical evaluation. The preclinical outcomes, along with the company's IP coverage, would have the potential to demonstrate proof of concept and enable the company to further extend dialogue with pharma research and development/biotech companies active in the therapeutic neuro-oncology space.
Preveceutical's president and chief science officer, Dr. Mak Jawadekar, stated: "We are indeed quite excited to have accomplished further strides towards proof of concept for these innovative Nature Identical peptide therapeutics for application into the neuro-oncology therapeutic area and look forward to progressing them through proof of concept studies."
About Preveceutical Medical Inc.
Preveceutical is a health sciences company that develops innovative options for preventive and curative therapies utilizing organic and nature identical products.
We seek Safe Harbor.