SAN FRANCISCO-- Point Therapeutics Inc. (POTP)shares jumped 22% to $1.53 in Monday morning trade after the Boston-based biopharmaceutical company said new data in an osteosarcoma model demonstrated that mice treated with talabostat, the company's lead product candidate, had a four-fold decrease in the number of primary tumors compared to saline treatment. In a separate experiment, the company said mice treated with talabostat had a 20-fold decrease in the number of metastatic lung nodules. The studies were presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer Development in Los Angeles. In one experiment, talabostat was shown to decrease the growth of primary tumors. Mice were injected intramuscularly with a murine osteosarcoma cell line and treatment with either talabostat or saline began the following day. Mice treated with talabostat had a marked reduction in the development of primary tumors. Only two out of 10 mice treated with talabostat went on to form tumors whereas eight out 10 mice treated with saline formed tumors.
REMEMBER THAT THIS IS PRECLINICAL DATA--NOT IN HUMANS OR EVEN PHASE 1.
What is talabostat and how does it work?
Talabostat (valine-proline-boronic acid) is a potent and long-acting inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidases, or matrix metalloproteases, MMP's. MMPs have been under intense research for cancer targets for many years.
So what are dipeptidyl peptidases? They are enzymes that cut proteins on the extracellular matrix and proteins that surround tumors that are solid. Here is a good example of a compound being tested, it worked, they ran with it and they really do not know the exact mechanism of action other than the basic pharmacokinetics.
POTP is up 16% today to $1.45 in heavy trading.
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