Project description
A novel anti-metastatic treatment against triple negative breast cancer
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive type of breast cancer with great metastatic propensity. TNBC lacks expression of oestrogen receptors, and as such, there are fewer targeted and efficient treatment options. The EU-funded CanceRusolution project has developed a cytostatic drug that targets the cytoskeleton of TNBC cells, halting their metastatic potential and hence their aggressiveness. Researchers plan to test the treatment in an animal model of TNBC and perform pharmacokinetics analysis. Upscaling treatment production to clinical grade will pave the way towards clinical testing of the treatment, with significant ramifications for the future management of TNBC.
Objective
R-nuucell is developing a new drug to treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) for which there is not any specific and efficient treatment in the market, making this disease an unmet clinical need.
The aggressivity of TNBC is due to the easiness of its metastization expanding the cancer through the body inevitably leading to death. So far, we gathered a set of results showing the antimetastatic potential of our new drug which mode of action would, conceptually, be able to eliminate the deadliest feature of cancer cells – their ability to invade and metastasize. This happens because the target of our drug is the cells’ foundation (ie the cytoskeleton). Thus, destroying the cytoskeleton of cells is like shaking the foundations of a house, it will be tumble-down!
With the Women TechEU program we will consolidate the proof-of-concept of the drug’s efficiency against metastases through two sets of in vivo studies in nude mice, and we will start the pre-clinical studies by performing pharmacokinetics (drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion). Also, in view of the natural future development of our drug we will start to develop its synthesis scale-up from the milligram to the multigram scale.
Women TechEU program mentoring and coaching will be also key to consolidate our business plan and to approach partners and investors towards a fundraising Level A in the near future. This level of funding (~1 M€) will enable to finish our pre-clinical studies and place R-nuucell in the position to license its international patent, one of the company’s assets (PT108082B, EA038640B1, EP3227307B1, CN107466297B, JP6726678B2, US15/533,289, under examination on Canada, Brazil and India), to a pharmaceutical company using a “business-to-business” strategy.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.2 - European innovation ecosystems Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG-LS - HORIZON Lump Sum GrantCoordinator
1749-016 LISBOA
Portugal
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.