Description du projet
Un nouveau traitement anti-métastatique contre le cancer du sein triple négatif
Le cancer du sein triple négatif (CSTN) est un type de cancer du sein agressif avec une grande propension aux métastases. Le CSTN n’exprimant pas de récepteurs d’œstrogènes, il existe moins d’options de traitement ciblées et efficaces. Le projet CanceRusolution, financé par l’UE, a développé un médicament cytostatique qui cible le cytosquelette des cellules du CSTN, stoppant ainsi leur potentiel métastatique et donc leur agressivité. Les chercheurs prévoient de tester le traitement dans un modèle animal de CSTN et d’effectuer une analyse pharmacocinétique. L’augmentation de la production du traitement au niveau clinique ouvrira la voie aux essais cliniques du traitement, avec des implications importantes pour la gestion future du cancer du sein.
Objectif
R-nuucell is developing a new drug to treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) for which there is not any specific and efficient treatment in the market, making this disease an unmet clinical need.
The aggressivity of TNBC is due to the easiness of its metastization expanding the cancer through the body inevitably leading to death. So far, we gathered a set of results showing the antimetastatic potential of our new drug which mode of action would, conceptually, be able to eliminate the deadliest feature of cancer cells – their ability to invade and metastasize. This happens because the target of our drug is the cells’ foundation (ie the cytoskeleton). Thus, destroying the cytoskeleton of cells is like shaking the foundations of a house, it will be tumble-down!
With the Women TechEU program we will consolidate the proof-of-concept of the drug’s efficiency against metastases through two sets of in vivo studies in nude mice, and we will start the pre-clinical studies by performing pharmacokinetics (drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion). Also, in view of the natural future development of our drug we will start to develop its synthesis scale-up from the milligram to the multigram scale.
Women TechEU program mentoring and coaching will be also key to consolidate our business plan and to approach partners and investors towards a fundraising Level A in the near future. This level of funding (~1 M€) will enable to finish our pre-clinical studies and place R-nuucell in the position to license its international patent, one of the company’s assets (PT108082B, EA038640B1, EP3227307B1, CN107466297B, JP6726678B2, US15/533,289, under examination on Canada, Brazil and India), to a pharmaceutical company using a “business-to-business” strategy.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.2 - European innovation ecosystems Main Programme
Régime de financement
HORIZON-AG-LS - HORIZON Lump Sum GrantCoordinateur
1749-016 LISBOA
Portugal
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.