Sugar rush
Partikula's KULA101 deprives tumors and feeds their foes
Partikula LLC is developing a series of compounds that elevate glucose and deplete lactate in the tumor microenvironment by modulating metabolism in tumors. Preclinical data for the lead compound - the tumor-targeted pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) inhibitor KULA101 - suggest the strategy has the dual benefit of starving the tumor and energizing antitumor T cells.
In a December press release, Partikula reported that in a mouse model of breast cancer, the compound increased the fraction of tumor CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and decreased their expression of four checkpoint inhibitors - programmed cell death 1 (PD-1; PDCD1; CD279), CTLA-4 (CD152), T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain 3 (TIM3; HAVCR2) and lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG3; CD223) - compared with vehicle...