FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TAE Life Sciences (TLS), a biological-targeting radiation therapy company developing next-generation boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), today announced that as part of its growing pipeline of investigational therapies, it has identified several proprietary drug candidates, including TC220 and TC221.
“TLS is the only company developing comprehensive, in-house target drugs as well as a neutron technology system called Alphabeam™ to enable the next-generation in biologically targeted radiation therapy. Today’s news brings us closer to our goal of providing new hope to patients with the most difficult to treat cancers,” said Bruce Bauer, PhD, CEO of TAE Life Sciences. “Historically, brain, head and neck, and melanoma cancers have been treated with BNCT and studies have shown improvements in survival compared to other cancer therapies. New boron drugs expand the potential to treat other indications including breast, lung and liver cancers.”
Most BNCT clinical studies to date have been carried out using boronophenylalanine (BPA) as the boron target drug. When neutron radiation is applied, the boron atoms react to generate alpha particles that destroy cancer cells. Healthy cells without the boron are spared, resulting in less normal tissue damage. This is a key difference compared to conventional radiation therapy. While historical BNCT clinical outcomes have been encouraging, the availability of better boron-10 drugs and access to an in-hospital neutron system will now provide more opportunities for clinical research and potential improved efficacy of this new cancer therapy.
TC220 and TC221 have similar targeting as BPA, but have several more favorable properties, including:
- Delivers more boron selectively to tumor cells compared to BPA in pre-clinical studies.
- Much greater solubility than BPA, potentially allowing for of easier administration and delivery of far more boron to tumor tissue. This could be key for improving clinical outcomes.
- In pre-clinical studies, TC220 is retained longer in the tumor compared to BPA, making it possible to attain a greater tumor to normal tissue ratio for boron than possible with BPA. This should provide greater flexibility in treatment planning.
- As demonstrated by early preclinical data, TC220 and TC221 have shown consistent superior delivery of boron in multiple human tumor xenografts compared with BPA, expanding their potential clinical application.
“It is very exciting to add these two new compounds to our rich pipeline of boron containing drugs and to nominate them as product candidates so quickly,” said Kendall Morrison, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of TAE Life Sciences. “Our early pre-clinical data has shown TC220 and TC221 to have excellent boron delivery properties. The next step will be to identify a contract manufacturer and evaluate the two compounds in stability, pharmacokinetic, toxicokinetic and pre-clinical efficacy studies.”
About Biologically Targeted Radiation Therapy (BNCT)
BNCT is a non-invasive, biologically targeted particle therapy that combines a non-toxic compound containing boron-10 and a low-energy, epithermal neutron beam. This combination generates a therapeutic dose at the cellular level that destroys tumor cells while sparing healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. This results in less toxicity for the patient and the potential to escalate the therapeutic dose to the cancer cells. BNCT has the potential to treat undetected metastases in the local region of the tumor in the same treatment session, which is difficult to impossible for conventional radiotherapy because of the logistical patient treatment setup barriers and the amount of radiation that would be delivered to healthy cells. In addition, BNCT may be utilized for several cancers which are resistant to many, if not all, current cancer therapies available, such as glioblastoma multiforme.
About TAE Life Sciences
TAE Life Sciences (TLS) is a privately held biotechnology company committed to developing a new biologically targeted radiation therapy based on Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). TLS is developing the next generation targeted boron drugs and low-energy accelerator-based neutron source – optimized for an in-hospital BNCT program that can one day treat patients with the most aggressive and recurrent cancers. We have assembled a world-class, cross-functional team of clinicians, radiation oncologists, physicists, and other researchers to enable us to bring our technology to cancer patients who need it most. TLS’s target drugs and neutron radiation system are currently in development and have not been approved for sale. More information about TAE Life Sciences is available at www.taelifesciences.com.
