SAN DIEGO, Dec. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Inc., (eFFECTOR), a leader in the development of selective translation regulators (STRs) for the treatment of cancer, announced today that it presented data on Sunday, December 2 at the AACR Special Conference on PI3K/mTOR Signaling demonstrating the potential of its eIF4E pipeline program as an approach to treat cancer.
Gary G. Chiang, Ph.D., director of cancer biology at eFFECTOR, presented the poster entitled “Targeting PI3K/mTOR signaling with potent, selective and orally-available small molecule inhibitors of eIF4E,” which showed that compounds which inhibit the translation initiation factor eIF4E exhibited significant anti-tumor efficacy in both solid tumor and hematological xenografts in vivo. In in vitro studies, inhibition of eIF4E by the series of potent, orally available competitive inhibitors generated by eFFECTOR resulted in potent, anti-proliferative activity and induction of apoptosis in a subset of tumor cell lines.
“eIF4E is one of the last remaining major oncogenic drivers that hasn’t yet been exploited as a basis for cancer therapy,” said Steve Worland, Ph.D., president and CEO of eFFECTOR. “Our chemistry platform has allowed us to overcome technical challenges inherent in this target and we expect to advance the program into preclinical development next year. This is our third development program, each of which target distinct elements of the protein translation machinery, and we believe that inhibition of each element – MNK 1/2, eIF4A and eIF4E – has a different effect on tumors and would therefore be applicable in different types of cancers.”
About eFFECTOR Therapeutics
eFFECTOR Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company at the forefront of an emerging class of therapeutics known as selective translation regulators or STRs. By acting on key biological mechanisms responsible for tumor growth and immune suppression, STRs represent a promising small molecule approach for fighting cancer. eFFECTOR’s most advanced program, tomivosertib (eFT508), is currently in multiple Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of several types of cancer, both as an immune modulator and as an agent that acts directly on tumor cells. Through its expertise with STRs, eFFECTOR has entered into clinical collaborations with a strategic alliance between Pfizer and Merck KGaA to study tomivosertib in combination with BAVENCIO® (avelumab) and separately with Merck & Co to evaluate tomivosertib in combination with Keytruda® (pembrolizumab). Additionally, the company has an emerging pipeline of promising STR programs targeting well-known oncogenes and intractable targets. eFFECTOR maintains global rights to all of its development programs. For more information visit www.effector.com.
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