Lpath anticancer drug shows promise in preclinical trials

The antibody, dubbed Sphingomab, binds and neutralizes sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a member of a special class of lipids called sphingolipids. The antibody hinders the growth of tumors by preventing blood-vessel formation and by inhibiting metastasis.

This anti-sphingolipid approach is highly differentiated as nearly all drugs currently on the market target proteins.

Scott Pancoast, Lpath’s president and CEO was bullish about the impact that the new antibody could have on cancer treatment: “While Genentech pioneered the anti-angiogenesis approach to treating cancer with their blockbuster drug, Avastin, we believe we have taken their approach one step further with an antibody that appears to be more potent and that has additional mechanisms of action.”

The company, in collaboration with San Diego State University (SDSU) and MD Anderson Cancer Center, administered Sphingomab to mice implanted with multi-drug-resistant human breast, lung, and ovarian cancer cell lines and in a mouse melanoma (skin cancer) cell line.

In the lung, breast, and melanoma cancer models, tumor volumes were reduced by about 60%. In the five mouse models of ovarian cancer two of the tumors were eliminated altogether, and the three others showed an average tumor-volume reduction of 68% as compared with the controls.