MESA, Ariz. — April 1, 2011 — Predictive Biomarker Sciences (PBS-Bio) decodes the workings of drugs made by two private firms in abstracts presented this week at the 102nd annual conference of the American Association for Cancer Research.
The conference runs April 2-6 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. The presentations will be given on April 5.
In one abstract, PBS-Bio shows how the drug UNBS1450, made by Unibioscreen, a Belgian firm, affects two genes — MCL1 and MYC.
In the other abstract, PBS-Bio shows how the drug NDC-1308, made by ENDECE, a Mequon, Wis., company, holds great promise as an anti-cancer therapeutic because of the multiple ways it attacks cancer cells.
To improve the determination of the functional dynamics of cells' responses to drugs, PBS-Bio has developed technology that allows gathering data from living cells using fluorescent reporter technology. This technology allows highly sensitive measurements to be made in real time, showing the changes that might occur for an individual cell or for a population of cells, said Dr. Edward Smith, founder and CEO of PBS-Bio, which is owned in part by the non-profit, Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
In the case of Unibioscreen's UNBS1450, PBS-Bio showed how the drug reduces the expression of these two genes, MCL1 and MYC, allowing the natural cycle of cellular death called apoptosis to resume. The out-of-control proliferation of cells is a prime symptom of cancer.
"The presence of MCL1 can be used as a stratification, or predictive, biomarker to help determine which cancer patients are most likely to respond to UNBS1450," said Dr. Smith. This would be particularly beneficial, Dr. Smith said, in selecting patients to participate in clinical trials of UNBS1450, and ultimately in helping physicians decide who should be placed on the drug once it is approved for general use.
In the case of ENDECE'S NDC-1450, PBS-Bio found that the company's lead compound targets molecular "bioswitches" that control metabolic pathways impacting cancer cell growth. PBS-Bio also may help ENDECE determine which cancer patients might be the best candidates for the drug, and gain an understanding of what current cancer drugs, if any, would be appropriate candidates for combination drug therapies.
To jump-start drug development, PBS-Bio's analysis helps pharmaceutical companies better understand how their drugs work, and identifies biomarkers that can help predict which patients will respond to treatment.