The Problem

Almost all cancer deaths with solid tumor disease are caused by metastatic disease - the spread of cancer from its original location to distant areas within the body.  Once a primary tumor has spread, traditional treatments of surgery and radiation offer little hope for true recovery and quality of life. For many types of cancer, traditional chemotherapy is relatively ineffective, and death rates remain high for individuals with metastatic disease.

Targeted cancer therapy - going specifically after cancer but not hitting the normal tissue - is a promising therapeutic approach.  Unfortunately, contrary to its name, most targeted therapy efforts focus on primary cancer, and on targets that are also expressed in normal tissue and not associated with metastatic disease.  Most success comes with a significant decrease in quality of life for the patient and is temporary as the cancer returns in an even more resistant and deadly new form.

Targeted cancer therapy, when properly applied can work, and eventually, it is going to work. How? By identifying new and better cancer targets not present in normal tissue and in the cancer cells that truly drive the disease: The malignant cells with stem cell properties can spread through the body and become resistant to existing therapies.

The Solution

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that aggressive cancers - the bad ones that metastasize and cause death - occur as a cellular reprogramming disease. Under genetic or environmental stress, normal cells undergo cellular reprogramming and start to de-differentiate to a more primitive cell. Eventually, If the stressed cells revert backward sufficiently to acquire biochemical properties of embryonic stem cells. These transformed and now cancerous cells are then able to spread and cause death. These malignant stem cells are the origin and cause of aggressive cancer.  The ability to kill these cells should result in improved treatments and cures for many affected patients.

At CureMeta we have developed a unique antibody-drug development platform to generate highly specific and high-affinity monoclonal antibodies to embryonic protein and carbohydrate structures which are targets on aggressive and metastatic cancers.

Lead Target TRA-1-60

Our lead cancer target, TRA-1-60 is highly present on normal human embryonic stem cells during embryogenesis. This large carbohydrate molecule disappears when embryonic stem cells differentiate into somatic cells.

Since 2012, CureMeta has generated compelling preclinical research data showing TRA-1-60 is present on the cell surface of cancer cells in aggressive and metastatic tumors. Nine independent research groups around the world have published scientific studies confirming TRA-1-60 as an important tumor marker in many kinds of cancer.

Below (left) is a picture of gastric cancer stained for TRA-1-60 (brown color indicates the presence of the molecule).  On the right is a graph showing TRA-1-60 staining pattern in 28 of 34 cases of metastatic gastric cancer, and no staining in normal gastric specimens without cancer.

Lead Drug CM-09

Bstrongximab is a human/mouse chimeric IgG1 antibody with high specificity and high affinity to TRA-1-60. Our CM-09 drug is an antibody-drug-conjugate with the toxin Mono-Methyl Auristatin E attached to the Bstrongximab antibody. CM-09 is internalized into the cancer cell where the toxin is released causing cell death. CM-09 binds only to cancer cells and not normal cells, thus providing a highly specific targeted mechanism of action. Our preclinical research shows CM-09 to be a first-in-class cancer drug with high potency and killing efficacy for a number of difficult-to-treat cancers.