On October 22, 2019 BERG, the clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to discover the biology of underlying disease, reported results from a preclinical study of its investigational drug BPM 31510 (novel ubidecarenone formulation) in glioblastoma models (Press release, Berg Pharma, OCT 22, 2019, View Source [SID1234542423]). The study, presented as a poster at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Annual Meeting in Chicago, demonstrated a novel oxidative stress dependent mechanism of action of BPM 31510 associated with anti-cancer responses in Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM).
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"We are excited to observe independent validation by a team of researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine of novel mechanisms of redox regulation by BPM 31510 that seem largely cancer cell selective," said Dr. Niven R. Narain, BERG Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The data are consistent with predictions by our proprietary Interrogative Biology platform that BPM 31510 affects mitochondrial-centric metabolism and can be applied to highly metabolic tumor types such as GBM. It is notable that this hallmark of cancer was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine1."
GBM is an aggressive type of brain cancer associated with very high morbidity and mortality rates. Currently, there are limited treatment options, thus there is an urgent need for novel therapeutic approaches to improve outcomes for this disease. BPM 31510 is a unique therapeutic modality specifically targeting cell metabolism, shifting the cancer’s glycolytic dependency toward mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation inducing oxidative stress and cell death specifically of cancer cells. GBM’s glycolytic dependency makes it a particularly relevant target indication for BPM 31510.
"These exciting findings support an entirely novel mechanism of cancer chemotherapy," said Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Past President of SfN and the Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC. "BPM 31510 not only shows therapeutic promise for GBM in animal models, but has proven to be well tolerated in humans in a recent Phase 1 study. It will be important to establish its efficacy in human GBM patients." Dr. Nestler is a member of the Board of Directors of BERG.
The study was led by Lawrence Recht, MD, Professor of Neurology & Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, with other Stanford researchers and in collaboration with BERG.
Details of the BERG presentation:
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Harnessing redox homeostasis as a therapeutic modality in glioblastoma
Session number 557 (Neuro-Oncology)
Location – Hall A, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL, USA
Time – 1:00 – 5:00 PM
In its commitment to serve patients afflicted with cancer, BERG has collaborated on other projects with leading institutions like MD Anderson Cancer Institute (clinical trials) and Harvard/BIDMC (Project Survival), among others.