Private therapeutics company, Inflection Biosciences, has published preclinical data, demonstrating that its dual mechanism PIM/PI3 kinase inhibitor IBL-202 has promise for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).
clinical data
This research, which has been published in the British Journal of Haematology, was conducted in collaboration with Dr Oliver Giles Best of the Northern Blood Research Centre, Kolling Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney, Australia.
The data show that IBL-202 is cytotoxic against CLL cells under in vitro conditions that mimic the hypotoxic tumour microenvironment — which has been shown, in a growing body of evidence, to provide a setting where CLL cells may survive and even proliferate, making treatment difficult.
Additionally, the published results demonstrate that IBL-202 has a significant effect on CD49d and CXCR4 gene expression and on the migration, cycling and proliferation of CLL cells, suggesting the drug may significantly impair the migratory and proliferative capacity of the leukaemic cells.
“Collectively, this data demonstrates that dual inhibition of the PIM and PI3 kinases by IBL‐202 may be an effective strategy for targeting CLL cells, particularly within the environmental niches known to confer drug‐resistance,” explained Best.
Inflection Biosciences is based in Dublin and London and develops small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.