Dallas, Texas April 17, 2023
Etira is pleased to announce that multiple abstracts related to their licensed products showed encouraging preclinical activity in metastatic breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The data, presented at The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, demonstrate strong efficacy in multiple preclinical models both in vitro and in vivo.
“We are excited by the positive preclinical results for both ERX-208 and ERX-41 recently presented at AACR. Our studies validate our prior finding that targeting LIPA to induce endoplasmic reticulum stress can effectively overcome tumor heterogeneity in ovarian cancer cells,” said Russell Hayward, Chief Executive Officer of Etira. “We are especially encouraged by preclinical data that demonstrates ERX-208 is a highly potent agent against ovarian cancer and can be advanced to clinical trials. We are also excited by the preclinical data supporting the use of a chemically distinct analog TX-245 in metastatic breast cancers driven by the mutant estrogen receptor. These findings support our pipeline of agents for additional indications, as we continue to advance ERX-315 to clinical trials.”
Presentations included:
1. ERX-208 as a novel therapeutic for treating ovarian cancer by enhancing endoplasmic reticulum stress (poster)
Presenter: Suryavathi Viswanadhapalli
Conclusions: The data demonstrated the utility of ERX-208 in ovarian cancer to overcome tumor heterogeneity by targeting LIPA and enhancing endoplasmic reticulum stress leading to apoptosis. ERX-208 reduced the growth of OCa patient derived organoids in vitro, patient derived explants ex vivo and xenografts including patient derived xenografts in vivo. ERX-208 treatment did not show any signs of toxicity at doses administered.
2. Novel LIPA targeted therapy for treating ovarian cancer (poster)
Presenter:Alexia B. Collier
Conclusions: These studies indicate that ERX-41 effectively binds to and targets LIPA, induces endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis of multiple types of ovarian cancer cells. Detailed molecular characterization of how ERX-41 binding to LIPA induces ER stress in OCa cells is ongoing.
3. Targeting the mutant estrogen receptor in metastatic breast cancer (talk)
Presenter:Karla Parra
Conclusions:TX-245, which was designed to bind to the mutant estrogen receptor, effectively inhibits cell proliferation in cell lines that express WT or mutant ESR1, induce ER degradation, suppress ER-mediated signaling and reduce tumor burden in mouse models. Importantly, TX-245 inhibited the progression of metastatic tumors, indicating its potential utility in patients with metastatic breast cancer expressing the mutant estrogen receptor.
About Etira
EtiraRx is a privately owned Dallas-based biotech startup focused on developing the next generation of cancer therapies. EtiraRx is advancing their first small molecule drug, ERX-315, to phase I clinical trials later this year for patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Learn more at www.etiraRx.com
contact@etirarx.com
