Shutting off the "Master Switch": A New Approach to Fighting Pancreatic Cancer
/By Mona Jhaveri, Ph.D.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the worst. It is often detected late, spreads rapidly, and has a poor prognosis. There are no symptoms in the early stages. Later stages are associated with symptoms, but these can be non-specific. New treatments are badly needed. Florida-based Singh Biotechnology is developing a new treatment approach that can shut off the “master switch” that controls cancer growth. This could revolutionize how we treat deadly cancers like pancreatic.
Cancer researchers, biotech innovators and pharmaceutical companies have been searching for the “cure” over the past five decades. While a silver bullet cancer cure has not been identified, many candidate treatments for various cancers have entered the market ranging from chemo to immune based therapies.
The currently marketed cancer drugs work by sabotaging a particular protein or “target” that is essential for cancer cell survival. Unfortunately, the approach of targeting one component of a cell system is a fundamental flaw in how we develop drugs because the cancer cell will almost certainly find an opportunity for a work-around. For this reason, current cancer drugs lose their killing powers allowing tumors to return in a more aggressive and malignant response.
Singh Biotechnology is designing cancer drugs differently, so that cancer cells cannot escape their drug’s killing effects. Singh’s approach is to create drugs that shut down the “master switch” of cancer cell growth, similar to shutting off the master switch of an electric circuit breaker box. Once the master switch is in the off position, all cellular pathways for growth are shut down, leaving cancer cells no ability to work around.
“Singh’s approach is to create drugs that shut down the “master switch” of cancer cell growth, similar to shutting off the master switch of an electric circuit breaker box.”
Importantly, Singh’s drugs are small, so small that they can in fact permeate all cells, including those in the brain and eyes, while leaving normal cells unharmed. These organs have been traditionally difficult to treat because existing drugs are too big to cross the cell membrane, the blood brain barrier and the blood retina membrane.
Singh’s lead drug candidate is called SBT-100 and has already shown preliminary success in animal models for various cancers, including hard to treat cancers such as pancreatic.
Singh Biotechnology has already received Orphan Drug designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pancreatic cancer and osteosarcoma. Therefore, pancreatic cancer and osteosarcoma (which are considered rare cancers) will be the first cancer to be tested with their novel drug.
Singh has also obtained a favorable FDA review for a “pre-IND” briefing packet, which included preclinical data in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), details about the manufacturing process for, and a proposal for toxicology studies in two species.
The company is now raising funds to complete the required toxicology studies and move into phase one clinical trials for triple negative breast cancer. The raised funds will be used for: two animal toxicology, safety, and efficacy studies; determining the best Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) bio-analytical method for drug analysis; investigational New Drug application fees; entry into Phase 1 clinical trials and ancillary expenses; and CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls) to scale-up to produce SBT-100 under good manufacturing practice conditions for investigational new drug (IND) enabling studies.
Singh Biotechnology is a virtual company, therefore all studies are being performed by independent contractors or scientific collaborators. A contract manufacturing organization (CMO) and contract research organization (CRO) have been identified to aid the company in conducting the toxicology studies and enter phase 1 clinical trials.
There is a public misconception that cancer has not been cured because the “cure” has not been found. The truth is there have been hundreds of cancer treatments that have entered the market since 1971, when then President Nixon declared war on cancer. Many of these drugs unfortunately lose their potency because cancer cells figure out how to avoid the drug’s killing effects.
Singh Biotechnology’s SBT-100, however, has the potential to maintain its drug killing effects by completely shutting down the cell’s ability to grow and divide. Therefore SBT-100 is positioned to revolutionize cancer treatment and significantly ease both the physical and economic burdens endured by society. If this technology fails to get funding, it would be a tremendous setback for science, medicine and most importantly for patients in need of treatment options.
Mona S. Jhaveri, Ph.D. is the founder, executive director, and chairman of the board at Music Beats Cancer, which is based in Connecticut. She holds a doctorate in biochemistry from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, and trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute. Music Beats Cancer is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that empowers people to directly and transparently support the advancement of new solutions and promising treatments for cancer.
When an individual contributes to a cancer-fighting campaign, Music Beats Cancer passes the “earmarked” dollar to the chosen campaign as a charitable grant. Donors receive updates and status reports from the campaigns they have supported. Funds raised on the platform of Music Beats Cancer would solely be used, as described above, for the advancement of Singh Biotechnology’s lead asset, SBT-100, by conducting the studies outlined in this article.
