BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Cancer

January 17, 2018 7:23 PM UTC

Patient sample and mouse studies suggest inhibiting PYCARD or its downstream effector IL-18 could help treat gastric cancer. In tumor samples from patients, levels of PYCARD and IL-18 were higher than in matched normal tissue. In a mouse model of gastric cancer, systemic knockout of PYCARD or IL-18 decreased gastric hyperplasia and tumor size and increased markers of apoptosis in tumor cells compared with normal PYCARD and IL-18 expression. Next steps could include testing IL-18 inhibitors in models of gastric cancer.

GlaxoSmithKline plc has 1070806, a humanized mAb against IL-18, in Phase II testing to treat Type II diabetes and prevent delayed graft function (DGF) after renal transplantation and Phase I testing to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)...