Somanta Presents Data on Angiolix for Targeting Breast Cancer Stem Cells

Somanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a cancer stem cell company focused on in-licensing differentiated oncology compounds and anti-cancer agents, will present preclinical data on Angiolix, a humanized monoclonal antibody, that recognizes a migrating adhesion molecule called Lactadherin, at the academic community sponsored Stem Cells and Cancer conference March 2-7 in Keystone, Colorado.

Angiolix binds to Lactadherin, which is thought to cause a VEGF-independent integrin receptor signaling cascade that blocks vascular endothelial cell proliferation.

Accordingly, cancer stem cells can over-express VEGF and contribute to tumor vasculature growth needed to supply blood to cancer cells.

Somanta’s recent data suggests that tumor cells express Lactadherin and that Angiolix may be able to act to specifically target breast cancer stem cell and cause tumor regression by blocking the growth of tumor vasculature by its ability to neutralize Lactadherin-integrin receptor binding.

Angiolix has been shown to achieve more than 75% growth inhibition of human breast cancer growing as xenografts in mouse models.