Lpath says novel antibody may reduce or eliminate tumors

By Lisa Kerner

Erie, Pa., March 14 - Lpath, Inc. said its founder and chief scientific officer, Roger Sabbadini, and a team of researchers have created an antibody that reduces the size of tumors in animal models of human cancer.

The antibody, known as Sphingomab, binds and neutralizes sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a sphingolipid, preventing blood-vessel formation and inhibiting metastatic potential (metastasis), according to a company news release.

The finding was published in the March 14 issue of Cancer Cell.

Lpath said S1P has gained attention as a validated mediator of tumor cell proliferation and a protector of tumor cells from chemotherapy drugs. It has also been shown to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels that tumors require to thrive, a process called tumor angiogenesis.

The Sphingomab antibody was used in collaboration with San Diego State University and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to treat mice implanted with multi-drug-resistant human breast, lung and ovarian cancer cell lines and in a mouse melanoma (skin cancer) cell line, the release stated.

Tumor volumes were reduced by about 60% in the lung, breast and melanoma cancer models and by 68% in the ovarian cancer models.

Lpath plans to apply for Food and Drug Administration approval for human clinical trials for Sphingomab in 2007.

"This groundbreaking research provides new hope for therapeutic treatments for those cancers that are resistant to current therapeutics," Sabbadini said. "The antibody is especially powerful as it is shown to prevent tumors from a variety of cancers, as opposed to being effective against only one type of cancer."

Sabbadini will present some of the team's findings reported in Cancer Cell, as well as new findings relating to liquid tumors, at the annual conference for the American Association of Cancer Researchers in April. Lpath plans to apply for FDA approval for human clinical trials for Sphingomab in 2007.

Lpath, based in San Diego, is a theranostics company focused on bioactive signaling lipids as targets for treating and diagnosing diseases, including cancer, heart failure and age-related macular degeneration.

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