Source: BioTuesdays
Medicenna Therapeutics (TSXV:MDNA) is advancing a targeted dual-action immunotherapeutic, MDNA55, that consists of an engineered version of interleukin-4 (IL-4) plus a tumor-killing cytotoxin for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma, the most common and uniformly fatal form of brain cancer.
“Cancer cells proliferate with the help of IL-4, so our approach is to trick the cell to ingest our toxin-laden IL-4 Empowered Cytokines, which makes MDNA55 a powerful Trojan horse,” Fahar Merchant, chairman, president and CEO, says in an interview with BioTuesdays.
“Because MDNA55 is so targeted and so potent, we don’t need to use much of the drug,” he adds, noting that one-gram of MDNA55 is enough to treat 10,000 patients.
Medicenna, which is derived by combining the word, medicine, with Avicenna, the father of evidence-based medicine, is currently enrolling patients in a Phase 2b study, which if successful, could lead to an application for accelerated approval of MDNA55 for patients with recurrent glioblastoma.
Dr. Merchant explains that MDNA55 enters a cancer cell by binding to the IL-4 receptor on the cell surface and, after entering the cell, initiates apoptosis, or cell death.
Read more – Dated: June 06, 2017
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