On April 8, 2024 Boundless Bio (Nasdaq: BOLD), a clinical-stage oncology company interrogating extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) biology to deliver transformative therapies to patients with previously intractable oncogene amplified cancers, reported preclinical and clinical pharmacodynamic data on its lead ecDNA-directed therapy (ecDTx), BBI-355, and research on ecDNA-mediated acquired resistance to chemotherapy at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2024 (Press release, Boundless Bio, APR 8, 2024, View Source;Directed-Therapy-BBI-355-at-the-American-Association-for-Cancer-Research-Annual-Meeting-2024 [SID1234641915]). BBI-355 is a novel, oral, selective inhibitor of checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) being studied in the ongoing, first-in-human, Phase 1/2 POTENTIATE clinical trial in patients with oncogene amplified cancers.

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"Extrachromosomal DNA afford unique advantages to tumors, typically rendering existing therapies ineffective and correlating with poor patient outcomes," said Chris Hassig, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Boundless Bio. "Our first poster presented this year at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) demonstrated that BBI-355 overcame ecDNA-mediated targeted therapy resistance in preclinical tumor models by leveraging the enhanced reliance of ecDNA-driven tumor cells on CHK1 for survival. BBI-355 showed substantial antitumor activity, including complete and durable regressions, in preclinical oncogene amplified models.

Dr. Hassig continued, "Today we present preclinical and preliminary clinical pharmacodynamic biomarker assay data that showed detection of CHK1 inhibition-associated replication stress in both patient skin and tumor tissue following administration of BBI-355. In addition, we report a possible role for ecDNA in acquired resistance to chemotherapy observed in preclinical models, extending the potential applicability of ecDNA-directed strategies beyond targeted therapy resistance. We are encouraged by these findings as we continue to advance BBI-355 through the ongoing Phase 1/2 POTENTIATE clinical trial."

Details of the presentations are as follows:

Title: Oral CHK1 inhibitor BBI-355 allows flexibility of dose and schedule with demonstration of monotherapy and combinational antitumor activity in extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA)-driven oncogene amplified preclinical models
Abstract Number: 613
Session Category: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics
Session Title: Kinase and Phosphatase Inhibitors 1
Session Date and Time: Sunday Apr 7, 2024, 1:30 PM – 5:00 PM PT
Location: Poster Section 25
Poster Board Number: 23

BBI-355 showed inhibition of CHK1 in a host of tumor cell lines and demonstrated in vivo single agent tumor growth inhibition, including complete tumor regressions, across a range of tumor models representing multiple different oncogene amplifications and tumor types. BBI-355 also demonstrated synergistic tumor growth inhibition, including durable regressions, when combined with targeted therapies across multiple oncogene amplified tumor models.

Title: Preclinical and clinical pharmacodynamic characterization of BBI-355, a novel, orally bioavailable, and selective CHK1 inhibitor being evaluated in the first-in-human Phase 1/2 POTENTIATE clinical trial of patients with cancer harboring oncogene amplifications
Number: 3631
Session Category: Clinical Research
Session Title: Biomarkers in Clinical Trials
Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 8, 2024, 1:30 PM – 5:00 PM PT
Location: Poster Section 40
Poster Board Number: 9

Historically, clinical CHK1 inhibitor programs have lacked effective clinical PD biomarker assays. The findings showed that phosphorylated-CHK1 Ser345 (pCHK1-S345) is a useful pharmacodynamic (PD) biomarker for confirming clinical on-target activity of BBI-355 and could potentially inform the pharmacologically active range of BBI-355 in clinical development. In addition to preclinical data, increased pCHK1-S345 expression by immunohistochemistry in skin biopsies from patients treated with BBI-355 in the ongoing POTENTIATE clinical study were also observed, marking the first, real-time analysis of PD activity from a CHK1 inhibitor in humans.

Title: Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) amplification of multi-drug resistance genes results in acquired resistance to taxane-based chemotherapy
Abstract Number: 5870
Session Category: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics
Session Title: Mechanisms of Drug Resistance 3
Session Date and Time: Tuesday Apr 9, 2024, 1:30 PM – 5:00 PM PT
Location: Poster Section 24
Poster Board Number: 14

Early insights into the role of ecDNA in driving resistance to paclitaxel, a taxane chemotherapy, are revealed and highlight the importance of ecDNA-directed therapies as a potential treatment option for many patients that have chemotherapy-resistant disease. Chemotherapy remains standard of care for many cancer patients, however, resistance to chemotherapy often develops and has been associated with the emergence of multi-drug resistance (MDR) gene amplification, such as ABCB1. These preclinical findings showed that ecDNA-enabled MDR gene amplification can cause short-and long-term resistance to paclitaxel, potentially driving resistance to chemotherapy in patients and underscoring the broad need for ecDTx for chemotherapy-resistant patient populations.

About BBI-355

Boundless Bio’s lead ecDNA-directed therapy (ecDTx), BBI-355, is a novel, oral, selective inhibitor of checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) being studied in the ongoing, first-in-human, Phase 1/2 POTENTIATE clinical trial (NCT05827614) in patients with oncogene amplified cancers. CHK1 is a master regulator of cells’ response to replication stress (RS). RS is elevated in ecDNA-enabled oncogene amplified cancer cells and, because of this, represents a key vulnerability of those cells. BBI-355 was designed to exploit the elevated RS in ecDNA-enabled oncogene amplified cancer cells by disrupting proper CHK1 function in regulating RS and thereby facilitating catastrophic RS to preferentially kill cancer cells relative to healthy cells.