Background

Multiple myeloma (MM), or plasma cell myeloma, is a cancer of a certain type of white blood cells called plasma cells. These cells are responsible for making antibodies. Globally, MM affects approximately 500,000 people. It usually occurs around the age of 61 and is more common in men than women.

MM is considered treatable, but generally incurable. Current treatments include steroids, chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation, thalidomide and derivatives and monoclonal antibody therapy. Without treatment, typical survival is seven months. With current treatments, survival is usually 4–5 years with a five-year survival rate around 50%.

Technology Overview

The current proposition consists of a new method of treating MM by reducing the expression of certain aberrantly expressed sugars.

Aberrant glycosylation is a hallmark of cancer cells with increased evidence pointing to a role in tumor progression. In particular, aberrant sialylation of glycoproteins and glycolipids has been linked to increased immune cell evasion, drug evasion, drug resistance, tumor invasiveness, and vascular dissemination, leading to metastases. Hypersialylation of cancer cells is largely the result of overexpression of sialyltransferases (STs). Using this background, we examined the altered expression of glycosylation-related genes in MM and demonstrated, using in vitro and in vivo model systems, that knockdown of ST3GAL6 attenuates MM cell adhesion and migration in vitro and reduces the ability of these cells to home to the bone marrow in vivo, resulting in a reduction in tumor burden and prolonged survival of xenograft mice.

Benefits

Patent pending
Flexible modalities
Scientifically published

Applications

Multiple myeloma
Cancer therapeutics
Cancer diagnostics
Oncology

Opportunity

Available for licensing

Product development

Treatment for Multiple Myeloma

Patents

IP Status

Seeking