Celleron Therapeutics Establishes in Oxford, UK
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Celleron Therapeutics (Celleron) a new healthcare company dedicated to the development of targeted cancer medicines, has been established in Milton Science Park, Oxford, UK.
The company has two oncology programmes in clinical development, a strong pre-clinical pipeline and a targeting biomarker capability, CancerNav™ which predicts tumor sensitivity to new and existing therapies.
Celleron’s clinical portfolio is led by CT100, a novel series of chemical compounds derived from quercetin, a natural product found in small quantities in foodstuffs including onions, red wine and tea. Quercetin has been widely touted as an anti-cancer ‘wonder-drug’, but there is little hard scientific evidence to substantiate the efficacy of preparations currently on the market.
Although studies indicate that quercetin has potential in a variety of diseases, it is poorly soluble and has proven difficult to formulate as a drug. Celleron’s proprietary CT101 compound is a soluble form of quercetin and it has been demonstrated that dosing results in predictable levels of the active form, i.e. quercetin, in the blood. The clinical potential of CT101 encompasses ovarian, lung, prostate, breast and hepatocellular cancers.
There is good evidence that CT101 inhibits a molecular target known to be essential for cancer cell growth and survival and in a completed study in cancer patients, the safety and likely therapeutic dose range have already been established.
Furthermore, due to its mechanism of action, which is not generally cytotoxic, CT101 is believed to have a very low potential to cause trea™ent-limiting adverse effects.
In addition to CT100, Celleron is developing CT200, which targets a key enzyme in chromatin control and induces tumor cell death. CT200 is in Phase I trials and Celleron has used CancerNav™ to identify a biomarker that regulates tumor cell sensitivity to chromatin-based inhibitors. Celleron’s ability to target drugs to responsive tumors will overcome many of the problems associated with current cancer therapies and the CancerNav™ platform will be central to the success of its portfolio.
