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news.UK clinical-stage cell therapy development firm ReNeuron Group has selected glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common form of brain cancer, as the initial clinical target for its exosome nanomedicine platform.
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The company said its decision was based on evidence of tumour-inhibiting activity from early pre-clinical trials with the technology.
GBM accounts for 16% of all diagnosed brain cancers and the median survival for newly diagnosed disease is 12 to 15 months, while only 4% to 6% of sufferers survive beyond five years.
The incidence rate in the US and Europe combined is about 25,000 patients a year.
Exosomes are nanoparticles secreted from all cells, including ReNeuron’s CTX stem cell line, and play an important role in moving beneficial proteins and non-coding microRNAs from one cell to other.
The company said its researchers have identified a mechanism by which exosomes expressed from CTX cells inhibit the growth and migration of glioblastoma cells in pre-clinical models of the disease.
Based on the findings, the company is carrying out pre-clinical development of its selected exosome nanomedicine candidate, designated ExoPr0, targeting GBM.
ReNeuron is partnering with the Netherlands Cancer Institute to carry out additional tests on the efficacy of ExoPr0.
The company is also working with the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London under a recently awarded £2.1m grant from Innovate UK.
The grant will fund the development of manufacturing systems for ExoPr0.
After a successful outcome to the pre-clinical development programs, ReNeuron plans to file an application to start a first human clinical trial with ExoPr0 in the second half of 2017.