Antibodies inhibit cathepsin S to stop metastasis – news from Memorial Sloan Kettering research team
One of the most important goals of modern medical research is to find an effective and non invasive method of a cancer treatment. Immunotherapy and Stratified Medicine have a great potential to become a leading approach to cancer therapy.
The research team of Memorial Sloan Kettering announced their results on a Cathepsin S* inhibition effect on brain cancer metastases, which commonly follow breast cancer appearance.
“To validate the role of cathepsin S in promoting brain metastases, the researchers inhibited it with experimental drugs. This significantly reduced the development of brain metastasis in the animals. To be effective, the drugs needed to block cathepsin S in both the cancer cells and the macrophages. Although related cathepsin S inhibitors are already in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, they are not currently being tested in cancers. We hope that may change soon.”
See more at: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Fusion Antibodies have also generated a cathepsin S inhibitor molecule, Fsn0503, which is a fully human anti-Cathepsin S antibody with anti-tumour and anti-angiogenic properties. Fusion Therapeutics has generated positive preclinical data demonstrating efficacy of Fsn0503h in multiple models both as a monotherapy and in combination with approved agents.
Johanna Joyce, who heads a laboratory in the Sloan Kettering Institute’s Cancer Biology and Genetics Program
Robert Bowman and Lisa Sevenich, coauthors of the study and members of Dr. Joyce’s laboratory
*Cathepsin S is a cysteine protease highly expressed in many cancers including colorectal, breast, prostate and glioblastoma’s. It is involved in tumour progression through extracellular matrix remodelling.
