https://www.nature.com/articles/d43747-020-01103-2
“Almost all fundamental processes have been exploited to kill tumor cells, but there’s one missing piece and that’s the inhibition of transcription,” said Andreas Pahl, Heidelberg Pharma’s Chief Scientific Officer. Amanitin is now filling that gap through the inhibition of RNA polymerase II. Whilst the compound is toxic to the liver, Heidelberg Pharma’s proprietary Antibody Targeted Amanitin Conjugate (ATAC) platform can successfully deliver amanitin-based therapies by chemically linking the drug to an antibody (Fig. 1). “Just by selection of the antibody we can guide the amanitin payload to different tumor targets and so far, we haven’t found a tumor entity that is resistant to this new mode of action,” said Pahl.
Heidelberg Pharma is now looking for further partnerships to exploit the full potential of its ATAC platform, which can be used to develop safe and effective amanitin-based therapeutics with any specific antibody. “We believe our approach could be a huge step forward in cancer therapy to treat a wide range of tumors and address resistance and dormant tumor cells. This would allow for complete tumor elimination and hopefully even achieve the dream of a cure for cancers that until now relapse and remain incurable,” said Pahl.
Et interessant partnerskap for NNV?