ProAgio

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Introduction: Pancreatic cancer affects a large population worldwide with nearly 50,000 new cases emerging in the U.S. alone every year. The 5-year survival rate for patients is below 7%, and more than 350,000 will die from the disease every year. Currently, there is no effective treatment that reduces angiogenic vessel formation and cell growth in tumorous masses. The existing therapeutic approaches target integrins by focusing on ligand binding which largely limits the clinical success of the antagonist/agonist interaction. This presents a significant need for a drug with a well-defined cell surface target and a very clear molecular mechanism to promote cancer cell apoptosis (programmed cell death) without compromising the drug’s efficacy. Technology: Georgia State University researchers have rationally designed a protein drug for the treatment of pancreatic cancer via a novel mechanism of drug action and a unique drug target. This protein drug specifically depletes cancer-associated pancreatic stellate cells (CAPaSC) and eliminates tumor angiogenesis, thereby improving drug delivery in pancreatic tumors. In addition, it enhances the efficacy of gemcitabine, which is an approved treatment for multiple cancers. As an anti-angiogenic agent, this novel drug may also serve as a complementary treatment for many other diseases, including metastatic liver cancer and HCC, lung cancer, chronic liver disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and other neoangiogenesis-associated eye diseases.