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Novel injectable resiquimod formulation for treatment of metastatic cancers
Phone: (585) 354-5309
Email: jywanga@gmail.com
Phone: (585) 354-5309
Email: jywanga@gmail.com
PROJECT SUMMARY
Malignant melanoma is one of the most aggressive types of skin cancer causing a large
majority of skin cancer related deaths worldwide Recently there have been staggering
breakthroughs with the advent of drugs that act on checkpoint inhibitors These are paradigm
shifting immunotherapeutic agents not only for melanoma but for cancers in general because
they harness the bodyandapos s innate ability to target and destroy malignant cells The original FDA
approval for anti CTLA and anti PD therapies for melanoma contributed to better patient
outcomes The recent FDA approval for their combination for metastatic melanoma showed that
attacking cancers through dual pathways led to better efficacy than with any single agent alone
Although promising the incidence of high grade immune related adverse events irAEs due to
the combination therapy is over Therefore there is a pressing clinical need to develop
therapeutic agents that may enhance the therapeutic effect of anti PD therapy without
significantly increasing toxicity in cancer patients Resiquimod is TLR agonist that is
chemically related to imiquimod Aldara Resiquimod is more potent than imiquimod in inducing
cytokine release owing to its ability to target two not one TLRs and its increased bioavailability
Our goal is to harness this small molecule to destroy malignant melanocytes but to keep its
effects localized to the site of injection to prevent systemic side effects In addition we plan to
boost resiquimod with chemical enhancers that will increase the local anti tumor immune
response Our preliminary data demonstrate that topical resiquimod has surprisingly potent
therapeutic efficacy against established melanoma in multiple genetically engineered mouse
GEM and syngeneic melanoma mouse models Topical resiquimod treatment not only
inhibited melanoma growth but also suppressed lymph node metastasis while exhibiting the
abscopal effect whereby tumors distant from the site of treatment were also affected We plan
to develop an injectable form of resiquimod which we believe will be even more effective
against melanomas Our goal is to minimize the dose of resiquimod needed to induce a local
anti melanoma immune response We will formulate the safest and most effective form of
injectable resiquimod first and test our best resulting product with anti PD therapy We are
confident based on our preliminary data that combination injectable resiquimod anti PD
treatment will be groundbreaking for melanoma as well as for many other malignancies such as
lung and bladder cancers We have the scientific and personnel capability to achieve these aims
quickly and meticulously Our innovative product will lay a solid foundation for IND enabling
studies that will ultimately bring a novel and effective therapy to clinicians and patients in their
fight against melanoma
PROJECT NARRATION
Resiquimod is a powerful immune response modifier that stimulates the bodyandapos s own immune
system to attack cancer cells through activation of toll like receptors In our proposed
project we will create an injectable form of resiquimod that is safe effective and capable of
direct delivery into the tumor of interest in our case malignant melanoma We expect the
resiquimod formulation generated from our animal studies to be used as the first and preferred
injectable agent in combination with anti PD therapy to treat hard to cure malignant melanoma
and other metastatic cancers in humans
* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *