Project description
A novel therapy for glioblastoma
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain tumour and is characterised by dismal patient survival. Currently, surgical resection is the gold standard care, which however fails to remove all cancer cells, leading to recurrence. The EU-funded EpiGlioT project is addressing the limited treatments for glioblastoma, focusing on the cases that are resistant to conventional therapeutics. Researchers have developed a strategy for knocking down lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), an enzyme that is overexpressed in many cancers and targets epigenetic modifications of histones, serving as a gene expression regulator. EpiGlioT is supporting a feasibility study towards the development of LSD1 as a novel glioblastoma therapeutic that will improve patient survival and reduce healthcare costs.
Objective
The goal of this project is to develop a successful treatment that combats the progression of glioblastoma and improve patients’ quality of life. Glioblastoma, the most malignant brain tumour, leads to disproportionately high morbidity in patients and impacts the economy through high mortality rates. The available treatment options are highly ineffective and pose a significant challenge to the healthcare budgets of all nations.
Beactica aims to address this challenge by developing novel compound to inhibit the overexpressed in cancers protein LSD1. Beactica’s programme is based on a verified LSD1 knockdown technique and proves markedly more effective with glioblastoma clones that are resistant to other therapeutics. This way, Beactica’s compounds effectively clear cancer cells from which brain tumour might grow anew and will reduce the risk of relapses.
This therapy will improve intervention outcomes for patients and lower additional treatment and healthcare costs including longer hospitalisation and further medical procedures. This programme is unique and there are no competitors using the same approach to treat glioblastoma by knockdown of the LSD1 protein with a small molecule.
The ultimate success of this project will depend on the generation of clinical data which will improve opportunities for out-licensing. Beactica plans to apply for SME Phase 2 grant to take the lead compound through the clinical Phase I/IIa, and then reach the pharmaceutical market by an agreement with a strong licence partner. Beactica has an established business development contact network and has already gained trust of external investors in this innovative technology.
The problem of cancer is growing dramatically and has been highlighted in the recent policy focus by the European Commission and the World Health Organisation. In this light, Beactica is assured of the significant impact the LSD1 knockdown innovation will have on the glioblastoma burden in Europe and worldwide.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencessociologydemographymortality
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncology
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
754 50 Uppsala
Sweden
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.