The EriraRx team have identified a novel oral therapeutic agent - ERX-41 - as potentially useful in the treatment multiple solid cancers: triple negative breast cancer, glioblastoma, ovarian and pancreatic cancers. The molecule would seem able to enhance endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in cancer cells - important because aggressive cancer cells have higher basal levels of ER stress: the enhanced ER stress induced by ERX-41 is not compensated and causes cancer cell death. Normal cells - having low basal of ER stress - can compensate for ERX-41 activity and do not undergo cell death after ERX-41 treatment. Using state-of-the-art molecular approaches, the EtiraRrx team identified the molecular target of ERX-41 as the protein encoded by the lysosomal acid lipase A (LIPA) gene and that pharmacologic inhibition of LIPA by ERX-41 enhances ER stress in cancer cells. Study may provide foundation for clinical trials with patients with therapy-resistant cancers vulnerable to enhanced ER stress.
