Protease Activated Cytokines as Anti-Cancer Therapy

A novel therapy method for delivering localized anti-cancer responses without adverse body-wide side effects.

 

Problem Solved by the Technology

Despite remarkable success at identifying tumor-associated antigens (TAA), generating effective anti-tumor immune response has not been successful at eliminating tumors. Systemically administered active drugs often have profound side-effects which can be toxic or poorly tolerated. Local administration, however, is not always feasible because it is invasive or the targeted location is poorly defined or widely dispersed.

 

Applications

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed an approach with the potential to overcome many of the challenges current anti-cancer therapies pose. The inventors describe a way of designing fusion proteins that can be systematically delivered but are only activated at the tumor site as a result of cleavage by tumor specific proteases. This method delivers an inactive cytokine systemically and activates it locally in a tumor microenvironment.

 

Publication

Puskas J. et al Development of an Attenuated Interleukin-2 Fusion Protein that Can Be Activated by Tumor Expressed Proteases. Immunology. 2011 Jun;133(2):206-20.

 

UR Ventures Reference Number: 6-1665

URV Reference Number: 6-1665
Patent Information:
Title Country Patent No. Issued Date
Protease Activated Cytokines United States 8,734,774 5/27/2014
Category(s):
Therapeutic
For Information, Contact:
Blaze Pharoah
Licensing Manager
University of Rochester
585-276-6600
blaze_pharoah@urmc.rochester.edu
Inventors:
John Frelinger
John Puskas
Baek Kim
Mark Sullivan
Keywords:
Cancer
Immunotherapy
Oncology
Therapy