A novel, targeted, therapeutic intervention approach in cancer patients overexpressing cPLA2

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

Coegin Pharma’s core competencies originate from decades of basic research conducted by Professor Berit Johansen’s group at NTNU investigating the importance of Coegin Pharma’s therapeutic target, cPLA2. Based on the detailed understanding of the underlying biology and its implication in several diseases, Coegin Pharma is focusing on the development of small molecule therapeutics targeting cPLA2 in selected inflammatory diseases and cancer. The main objective of this project is to advance one of Coegin Pharma's portfolio compounds towards cancer treatment. The Cytosolic Phospholipase A2 group IVA enzyme (cPLA2a) emerges as a promising new target in cancer treatment. Importantly, cPLA2a is overexpressed in different tumour types and its expression correlates with poor prognosis, decreased overall survival and higher incidence of metastasis in patients. Lipid signalling group at NTNU has for a long time studied and published on the biology of PLA2 enzymes. For the investigation of cellular signalling mechanistic studies, chemical, selective powerful inhibitors were developed. In 2005 the company Avexxin (now named Coegin Pharma) was established. The cPLA2a-inhibitors have proven successful with clinical proof-of-efficacy in mild-to-moderate psoriasis patients and efficacy in animal models for kidney disease and arthritis. The inhibitors also have significant anti-cancer efficacy in a breast cancer mouse model and for many different cancer cells in vitro. The objective of this project is to validate cPLA2a as a therapeutic target in certain cancers, to validate the mode of action, and to mechanistically understand cPLA2a-inhibitors as a novel targeted cancer treatment, focusing on cPLA2a-overexpressing cancer patients.