Press release
Monopar Announces New Drug Candidate, MNPR-202, and Enters into Collaboration Agreement with the National University of Singapore for Preclinical Evaluation in Cancer
Development of novel Camsirubicin analog expands Monopar’s therapeutic pipeline WILMETTE, Ill., June 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monopar Therapeutics Inc.
About this update from Monopar Therapeutics Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Development of novel Camsirubicin analog expands Monopar’s therapeutic pipeline\nWILMETTE, Ill., June 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monopar Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: MNPR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on developing proprietary therapeutics designed to extend life or improve the quality of life for cancer patients, today announced it has entered into a collaboration agreement with the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) to evaluate the activity of MNPR-202 and related analogs in multiple types of cancer. MNPR-202 was designed to retain the same potentially non-cardiotoxic backbone as camsirubicin but is modified at other positions which may enable it to work in certain cancers that are resistant to camsirubicin and doxorubicin. Monopar recently announced a composition of matter U.S. patent (US10,450,340) covering MNPR-202 and related analogs. While we expect camsirubicin to enter a dose escalation run-in clinical trial in advanced soft tissue sarcoma in the second half of this year, CSI Singapore will explore how the immune system recognizes cancer cells treated with MNPR-202 and related analogs in order to guide the rational design of immunotherapy-chemotherapy combinations for the treatment of cancer. CSI Singapore is one of Asia’s premier cancer research centers and NUS is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Anand Jeyasekharan, MBBS MRCP (UK) PhD, of CSI Singapore, NUS is an expert in the molecular and biological responses of cancer cells to chemotherapy. Through this collaboration, we hope to gain fundamental insight into how MNPR-202 and related analogs alter the DNA of cancer cells and how the immune system then identifies and eliminates these cells, resulting in immunogenic cell death (ICD). The relationship between chemotherapy and ICD constitutes a prominent pathway for immune system activation against various cancers, including cancers that are considered to be “cold” and poorly responsive to checkpoint inhibition alone. A deeper understanding of ICD response may reveal additional indications where MNPR-202 and related analogs could have significant potential as anticancer therapies. “By expanding our understanding of MNPR-202 activity against chemotherapy-resistant tumors and working with Dr. Jeyasek...