Derek Wainwright, Associate Professor at Loyola University Chicago, shared on LinkedIn:
“Glioblastoma is an aggressive brain cancer and most people diagnosed die from it within about two years. Loyola published a story about how my laboratory is working to change that.
Our work centers on IDO1. IDO1 is a protein that tumors use to hold back the immune system’s attack on them. Large clinical trials a decade ago tested drugs that blocked the enzyme activity of IDO1. Those trials failed and we are taking different approaches to inhibiting IDO1.
One approach uses a PROTAC. A PROTAC is a molecule that tags the IDO1 protein for destruction by the cell’s waste-disposal machinery. The other approach uses an antisense oligonucleotide. This short synthetic strand binds the IDO1 RNA so the protein is never made.
None of this happens alone. Neurosurgeons, Drs. Vikram Prabhu and Anand Germanwala send freshly removed tumors from the operating room straight to our bench. Those tumors come from patients on one of the hardest days of their lives. We do not forget that.
Earlier this year, our team and collaborators at Northwestern published a phase I trial in newly diagnosed patients with glioblastoma. It combined radiation with PD-1 antibody and the IDO1 enzyme inhibitor, BMS-986205. That trial established the safety profile and the dose to move forward into future trials. We hypothesize that adding a drug that removes the IDO1 protein (ie IDO1 PROTAC +/- IDO1 ASO) will extend survival beyond what enzyme inhibition achieved.
With new therapy, Loyola researchers are working to cure a deadly brain cancer.”
You can also read: Oncopeptides Reports Blood-Brain Barrier Penetration in Glioblastoma INSULA Study
