Onco-Innovations CMO discusses PNKP cancer drug on podcast

Onco-Innovations Ltd. (CBOE CA: ONCO, OTCQB: ONNVF), a clinical-stage oncology company based in Calgary, Canada, featured its Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Islam Mohamed, in a recent episode of The BioMedWire Podcast, distributed by IBN.

Mohamed discussed the company's lead drug candidate, ONC010, which targets polynucleotide kinase phosphatase (PNKP), a DNA repair enzyme. According to Mohamed, no other clinical-stage program targeting PNKP currently exists. Onco-Innovations holds exclusive worldwide rights to foundational PNKP inhibitor patents from the University of Alberta, along with an exclusive sublicense to an accompanying nanoparticle delivery platform.

Mohamed described ONC010 as combining two selectivity mechanisms. The first is biological, using synthetic lethality to limit the drug's effect to cancer cells that have lost PTEN or SHP-1. The second is physical, relying on nanoparticles that concentrate the drug within tumor tissue by exploiting the permeability of tumor vasculature.

"ONC010 stacks two independent selectivity mechanisms," Mohamed said, adding that healthy cells lacking the relevant genetic losses are not affected by the drug's toxic properties.

Mohamed cited a University of Alberta preclinical study in which the nano-formulated PNKP inhibitor demonstrated single-agent antitumor activity, was tolerated at tested doses, and prolonged survival relative to controls.

"The treated animals lived longer than the controls did, and the drug was tolerable at the maximum feasible dose," he said.

The podcast episode was disseminated on behalf of Onco-Innovations and may include paid advertisements, according to the release.

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