Defence Therapeutics Inc.: Breakthrough Discovery: AccuTOX Effectively Kills Cancer Cells by Directly Eliciting DNA Damage
Vancouver, BC, Canada, August 2nd, 2022 - Defence Therapeutics Inc. (“Defence” or the “Company”), a Canadian biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development of immune-oncology vaccines and drug delivery technologies, is pleased to report the discovery of a novel DNA damaging function triggered by one of its lead compounds AccuTOXTM, which effectively elicits cell death in cancer cells.
Cancer can be generally described as a state of uncontrolled cell proliferation. This is mainly due to losses in the ability of a given cell to activate its own cell death via a specific set of proteins known to sense unusual activities. Although it is difficult to reactivate these specific pathways to elicit cancer cell death, AccuTOXTM can address this.
Defence previously reported (see press release of June 22, 2021) the discovery of an AccumTM variant, AccuTOXTM, capable of controlling cancer growth when injected directly in tumors. The use of AccuTOXTM in combination with multiple immune-checkpoints results in a survival rate between 60% and 100%, based on the pre-clinical tumor models studies in mice. The mode of action of AccuTOXTM approached is a non-biased transcriptomic application and revealed that the compound impairs several crucial pathways including DNA replication, cell division, nuclear integrity, and multiple modifications affecting DNA activity. The accumulation of exhaustive cell repair mechanisms triggered by AccuTOXTM combined to the build-up of misfolded proteins and generation of free radicals induce irreversible DNA damages leading to a general collapse in several cellular pathways resulting in effective cancer cell death.
"Defence’s breakthrough discovery with its AccuTOXTM formulation as a novel potent small molecule capable of killing cancer cells is a significant advancement and development for oncology cancer treatment applications with AccumTM. Discovering that AccuTOXTM can behave as a chemotherapeutic agent targeting the DNA of cancer cells and an immune-checkpoint inhibitor booster is a new discovery that is highly valuable to Defence’s pipeline and future potential developments. The AccuTOXTM presents a novel discovery as a platform for targeting multiple cancers. This novel discovery creates significant values and applications to our Antibody Drug Conjugate (“ADC”) pipeline. Results are convincing that AccuTOXTM is the perfect potent small molecule to use in the development of our own ADC", says Mr. Plouffe, the CEO of Defence Therapeutics.
Defence is currently conducting GLP studies on AccuTOXTM prior to initiate a Phase I trial in North America.
About Defence:
Defence Therapeutics is a publicly-traded biotechnology company working on engineering the next generation vaccines and ADC products using its proprietary platform. The core of Defence Therapeutics platform is the ACCUMTM technology, which enables precision delivery of vaccine antigens or ADCs in their intact form to target cells. As a result, increased efficacy and potency can be reached against catastrophic illness such as cancer and infectious diseases.
For further information:
Sebastien Plouffe, President, CEO and Director
P: (514) 947-2272
Splouffe@defencetherapeutics.com
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