TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals announced that the company has completed dosing of the first cohort in a Phase 1 clinical trial of its selective SMAC mimetic, TL32711. The Phase 1 trial is an open-label, dose-escalation study evaluating the safety and tolerability of TL32711 in adults with solid tumors or lymphoma refractory to standard therapies. The study will also assess the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and anti-tumor activity of TL32711.
“This is an important milestone for our company and for cancer patients,” said John M. Gill, President and Chief Executive Officer of TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals. “The ability of TL32711 to antagonize Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins in a selective manner represents a new broadly applicable approach to treat cancers that are normally resistant to therapies.”
TL32711 is a synthetic, small molecule peptidomimetic of SMAC (an endogenous regulator of apoptotic cell death) that selectively antagonizes multiple Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins (IAPs). Apoptosis, a process of programmed cell death, is the primary way that cancer cells are destroyed by standard therapies and also by the body’s innate response to cancer. IAPs block apoptotic cell death enabling cancer to resist being destroyed by therapies and innate responses. SMAC mimetics in preclinical studies have been shown to neutralize the blocking activity of IAPs, and thus, overcome resistance and enable cancer cells to be destroyed. TL32711 has demonstrated preclinical anti-tumor activity that supports its clinical development for solid tumor and hematological malignancies as a monotherapy and in combination with other anti-cancer therapies.
Date: January 8, 2010
Source: TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals
Filed Under: Drug Discovery