MolMed presents mechanism-of-action data on NGR-hTNF

Italian drug developer MolMed SpA has presented data showing the mechanism-of-action and clinical development outcomes of NGR-hTNF, its  investigational anticancer drug targeting tumor blood vessels, at the  11th International Symposium on Anti-Angiogenic Agents, held in San  Diego, USA.

The findings show that the binding of NGR-hTNF to tumor endothelial  cells induces cell death by eliciting defined signaling pathways through  the surface receptors for both moieties of the molecule, CD13 and TNF-R,  resulting in prevention of tumor growth.

MolMed's direct-acting vascular-targeting agent consists of the human  cytokine TNF coupled to NGR, a tumor-homing peptide. NGR targets a  particular form of CD13, a receptor selectively expressed by endothelial  cells of human tumor vessels during the formation of new blood vessels,  while it does not home to tumor-unrelated human tissues.