Date: Aug 22, 2014 Author: Lednor Mateus Ferreira Source: Bionews-tx.com (
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The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) recently awarded the privately-held, preclinical stage pharmaceutical company Curtana Pharmaceuticals a $7.6 million product development grant for the production of the first targeted small molecule therapeutics for glioblastoma (GBM) and other brain cancers.
A part of a major, new funding program from CPRIT, the award will allow the company to develop its lead cancer therapy program, which is designed to target the OLIG2 transcription factor, given its glioblastomacritical role in tumorigenesis. The transcription factor OLIG2 works as a regulator of the survival and expansion of GBM, and it is not commonly activated in normal brain tissue or found in normal tissues outside the central nervous system.
On the contrary, the OLIG2 is very important in all diffuse gliomas and nearly 100% of glioma CSCs that are positive for the CD133 stem cell marker. Researchers at Curtana Pharmaceuticals are currently working on a therapy that is based on the discovery of the over-expression of OLIG2, which results in turmorigenesis and promotes resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
"The company's award of the CPRIT product development grant is a significant testament to our technology platform and approach to treating glioblastoma," said the chief CPRITexecutive officer of Curtana Pharmaceuticals, Gregory Stein, M.D., M.B.A. "The grant will enable us to move our research through the preclinical phase of development and one step closer to patients who currently have very limited treatment options."
Curtana's OLIG2 inhibitors may become the first adjuvant treatment for nearly all gliomas — including high-grade glioblastomas — that specifically targets cancer stem cells and acts as a potent radio sensitizer. The GBM treatments currently available, which have evolved little during the last two decades, commonly include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation directed to the tumor bulk. However, they have a median survival of less than 15-months and a five-year survival rate of less than 10%.
Curtana Pharmaceuticals' main focus is on the development of novel, first-in-class, small molecule therapeutics targeting cancer stem cells in the central nervous system for the treatment of glioblastoma and other cancers. Currently based in San Diego, California, the company has also announced that it is planning to relocate to Austin, Texas as a result of the grant award.
The Curtana Pharmaceuticals grant is included in a 101-award program launched by CPRIT that granted upwards of $107 million in funding to support cancer-related projects. Two grants were earmarked for product development programs, 15 grants to prevention programs, and 84 grants to research programs, which were chosen among 600 grant applications across the state.
