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- 2022-12-28
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Additional projects being undertaken in Blumberg Institute labs:
Novel STING Agonists: A Potential Cure for HBV and Liver Cancer
Blumberg scientists have discovered new STING agonists that are highly effective in turning on
an immune response against HBV and cancers. Activation of STING with small molecular
agonists not only induces the production of antiviral cytokines that restrict viral replication,
but also activates a powerful adaptive immune response that can clear the virus-infected cells
and cure chronic viral infections, such as HBV. They have also found that intra-tumor delivery
of STING agonists can induce the programmed cancer cell death and activate anti-cancer
immunity for sustained control of tumor growth. With increased financial support, They will
further optimize our lead STING agonists and refine our liver-targeted delivery vehicle to
develop the STING agonists as a potential drug to cure HBV and liver cancers.
New Drug Targets HBsAg: To Improve Recognition of HBV by the Immune System
Researchers at the Blumberg Institute have discovered a concept-proving drug (252-C4-MPI)
that suppresses HBV production and appears to change its antigenic ‘face’ (HBsAg) with the
expectation that it will cause virus recognition by the immune system. An important new
strategy is to find a drug that can selectively modify the HBV proteins (or antigens) such that
the virus becomes recognized and can then be eliminated by the immune system. With
increased funding, they can pursue preclinical models for determining if our drug has the
ability to alter the HBV’s protein (antigen) structure so that it is safely recognized and attacked
by the immune system. If it does, they will know the approach is possible and can further
develop this drug or identify other drugs that work similarly through our screening process.
These would then become ‘first in class’ HBV drugs.
New Platform Technology: For the Early Detection of Liver Cancer
Blumberg scientists have detected a specific “mRNA” in the blood that could be used as a new
early detection marker of liver cancer. The mRNA we detected is associated with cancer
proteins that are not normally in the blood and could, therefore, become part of a simple
blood test. People living with chronic HBV are at significant risk for dying prematurely from
liver cancer. Early detection is critical to survival, but current screening methods for liver
cancer are expensive, inaccurate, or unreliable.
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