CoRegen Inc. Announces Publication of Preclinical Research Demonstrating Treatment with Modified Tregs Eliminates Tumors and Prevents Recurrence Without Side Effects
HOUSTON, June 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CoRegen, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing novel treatments for patients impacted by some of the most aggressive forms of cancer and chronic diseases, announced today the publication of research, titled, “Steroid receptor coactivator 3 is a key modulator of regulatory T cell-mediated tumor evasion,” in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This work showcases the discovery of steroid receptor coactivator 3 (SRC-3) as a crucial regulator of the anti-cancer immune response.
SRC-3 is a pleiotropic coactivator suspected of playing a critical role in the function of regulatory T cells (Tregs), which are essential in restraining immune responses for immune homeostasis. When SRC-3 expression was disrupted in Tregs, it was shown to result in complete tumor eradication in aggressive syngeneic breast cancer mouse models without recurrence or side effects. This approach has been tested with triple negative breast cancer, glioblastoma, advanced prostate cancer and pancreatic cancer and consistently achieved tumor eradication without recurrence or side effects in preclinical studies.
CoRegen is capitalizing on nearly 50 years of research by Bert O’Malley M.D., a renowned molecular endocrinologist who currently serves as the Chancellor of Baylor College of Medicine and the Inventor, Principal Scientist and Board Member of CoRegen. He has won more than 65 awards, received the National Medal of Science from President Bush.
Dr. O’Malley and his team discovered a protein called steroid receptor coactivator (SRC-1) that is required for the effective regulation of gene activity and have extensively characterized a family of SRCs (SRC-1, SRC-2 and SR-3) that regulate a variety of cellular functions. Of these, SRC-3 has been shown to be highly expressed in almost all human cancers and appears to also play a key role in cancer growth. Additionally, it was determined that when SRC-3 was removed from the Treg cell, a number of other genes, typically individually targeted in other cancer therapies, were down regulated while other genes were upregulated. These changes to the Treg were only observed inside the tumor but are believed to be one of the key drivers of the successful outcome of the studies. The team also discovered that Tregs lacking SRC-3 mediated long-lasting tumor eradication by effectively modifying the environment surrounding the tumor into one that favored its elimination. A subsequent injection of additional cancer cells in treated mice did not give rise to new tumors, showing that there was no need to introduce additional SRC-3 knock-out Tregs to sustain tumor resistance. Importantly, transferring these cells to animals carrying pre-established breast tumors also resulted in cancer eradication.
“We are highly encouraged by these findings,” said Dr. O’Malley. “By identifying SRC-3 and its critical role in the function of Tregs, it is our hope we may introduce entirely new methods for addressing the needs of patients with some of the most aggressive forms of cancer.”
“As a partner and significant shareholder, Baylor College of Medicine has tremendous confidence in the CoRegen management team and is looking forward to working with CoRegen to commercialize the groundbreaking discoveries originating from the O’Malley Laboratory. Baylor College of Medicine has and will continue to dedicate significant resources and infrastructure to assist CoRegen in its efforts to bring life-saving therapies to the world,” said Michael Dilling, Executive Director, Baylor College of Medicine Licensing Group.
Steve Gorlin, chief executive officer of CoRegen, added, “I have had the great fortune of having founded and led multiple companies reaching billion-dollar valuations, with some having resulted in the sale to large pharma. In my entire career, I have never seen an opportunity similar to that of CoRegen and view these data as stepping-stones towards potentially creating truly transformative therapeutics for patients in need. I look forward to continuing the advances generated from Dr. O’Malley’s lab in the years to come.”
CoRegen has partnered with Baylor College of Medicine to further develop and commercialize several of the groundbreaking discoveries originating from the O’Malley Laboratory with a team of more than 30 scientists and several meaningful partnerships.
*About CoRegen*
CoRegen is a biopharmaceutical company leveraging its unique and patented master gene regulatory platform for the treatment of cancers and other malignant and high intensity chronic illnesses. Although the CoRegen platform has a wide range of potential therapies it will initially focus on select cancers. As of today, in preclinical mouse studies, the CoRegen cancer therapy has been shown to completely eradicate established tumors, prevent the growth of new tumors and prevent recurrence with no signs of toxicity, inflammation or off target effects. The therapy has been tested on glioblastoma, pancreatic, triple negative breast and advanced prostate cancer. CoRegen’s patent estate also contains small molecule agents that inhibit and enhance the family of steroid receptor coactivators. The inhibitor drugs show activity against cancers by themselves but are also likely to be synergistic with other therapeutic modalities. The enhancer drugs show a wide range of activity including dramatically reversing damage and improving function after both myocardial infarction and stroke in rodent models.
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