BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Therapeutics: Notch signaling pathway; hairy and enhancer of split1 (HES1)

September 22, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

In vitro and mouse studies suggest inhibiting Notch signaling could help treat dedifferentiated liposarcoma. In patient tissue samples, levels of the Notch pathway ligand HES1 were higher in tumors than in normal adipose tissue. In a human dedifferentiated liposarcoma cell line, a Notch inhibitor tool compound decreased growth compared with vehicle. In a xenograft mouse model of the disease, another Notch signaling inhibitor tool compound decreased tumor growth. Next steps could include testing other Notch inhibitors in models of dedifferentiated liposarcoma.

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. has tarextumab (OMP-59R5), a human HuCal mAb that binds Notch 2 (NOTCH2) and Notch 3, in Phase II testing to treat pancreatic cancer and small cell lung cancer and Phase I testing to treat solid tumors...