Sydney-based Noxopharm (ASX: NOX) is preparing to apply its glutamate- inhibition technology to the treatment of the glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain cancer.
Dr Graham Kelly, Noxopharm’s Executive Chairman said GBM remains a poorly managed cancer, with surgery, radiotherapy and the chemotherapy drug, temozolomide, the current standard of care, offering median survival of only 12-15 months.
However, Dr Kelly says recent research now has confirmed that brain chemical, glutamate, is playing a key role in driving the aggressive nature of GBM growth.
Glutamate is an important brain chemical, triggering passage of electrical impulses between brain cells. These chemicals are known as neurotransmitters.
Glutamate is the brain’s main neurotransmitter, with important roles in learning and memory.
Dr Kelly says GBM cancer cells now have been shown to be connected to brain cells (neurons) that are feeding glutamate into the tumour, driving growth of the cancer cells.
As a result of a collaboration with UNSW Sydney in 2016, Noxopharm already has drugs in its chemical library that are selective glutamate-inhibitors. This proprietary intellectual property centred on a search for a drug capable of protecting the brain from glutamate-associated brain damage following a stroke or severe concussion.
Dr Kelly said Noxopharm already has a number of potential lead candidates, which puts it well-placed to expedite the path to the clinic.
This is an exciting opportunity that we believe we lead the world on. It’s early stage with many questions yet to be answered, but if we are successful, then we see this approach as potentially having the same benefit as blocking the way sex hormones drive the growth of breast cancer and prostate cancer,” Dr Kelly said.
“If anti-hormone therapy can deliver very significant survival benefits with highly aggressive forms of breast cancer and prostate cancer, then we see no reason why blocking glutamate function cannot deliver the same benefit for patients with GBM.
“A key challenge will be to limit a glutamate-blocking effect just to the tumour. A drug that blocks glutamate function in the brain generally would be far too toxic. Our compounds appear to work specifically where there is glutamate over-dose and have been well tolerated in animals to date. This is what we believe gives us a major competitive edge in what seems likely to be a major new area of drug development.”
Dr Kelly said the company’s primary focus remains on Veyonda and bringing it through the clinic and to market for the treatment of late-stage prostate cancer using its DARRT and LuPIN treatment regimens. The glutamate-inhibition program becomes the company’s second pipeline drug program but will be secondary to the Veyonda programme.
