Our Technology
AVT Scientists have identified and patented a chemotherapeutic drug called “Capridine” that has shown in pre-clinical models, also tested by the National Cancer Institute, to have specific activity against prostate and colon cancer. Two worldwide patents related to the synthesis, composition and use of these drugs comprise AVTs intellectual property (IP) portfolio. These novel target specific drugs, unlike other chemotherapeutics, have shown minimal bone marrow side effects.
The Company has also recently (September 2011) been issued two new patents. The first patent is related to a broad range of peptide-based vaccinations, and is a major paradigm shift in immunotherapeutic vaccine technology that can be readily adapted to other diseases in the future. Combining this technology with the second patent may enable us to overcome certain challenges relating to vaccine delivery. The vaccines being developed by the Company may become commercial products either: a) as a vaccine developed by the Company which may take on a prophylactic role and thereby help prevent a specific type of cancer or disease; or b) as a therapeutic treatment to fight metastatic cancer or disease in conjunction with other existing treatment modalities. The Company believes that this major proprietary treatment regimen, when combined with the drug Capridine, can benefit prostate cancer patients in a novel and hopefully curative manner.
VACCINE THERAPIES
Cancer vaccines are divided into two groups, those which treat existing cancers (THERAPEUTIC VACCINES), and those which prevent the development of cancer (PROPHYLACTIC VACCINES). Both types of vaccines have the potential to reduce the burden of cancer. As per evaluation of NIH sponsored clinical trials to date, the area of therapeutic or prophylactic cancer vaccine is an unmet clinical need. Scientists at AV Therapeutics believe that there are two problems which need to be solved. The first is that cancer antigens, in part, are self-aberrant proteins that evade the immune system and hence are unrecognized and not killed by the host’s immune system. The host’s immune system needs to be re-educated so that cancer cells can be recognized and killed. The second problem is the constant generation of random mutations in cellular proteins and the generation of a large number of ever changing antigenic epitopes. The Company’s proprietary vaccine technology overcomes both of these limitations by using therapeutic peptides that are mimics of the multivalent antigens.
The objective of the first clinical testing of these peptides (ProVac-1,3,5) would be to render prostate cancer patients vaccinated with these peptides cancer-free. These are patients who have undergone the present standard of care for prostate cancer and these peptides are being tested for secondary prevention of prostate cancer recurrences. The next logical step for the clinical development of these peptide cancer vaccines would be the primary prevention of prostate cancer. Using our pipeline of patented products, our near term objective is to combine Capridine, the newly discovered and AVT-patented proprietary prostate-cancer-targeted chemotherapeutic drug, with a peptide-based immunotherapeutic vaccine, to design a completely unique curative treatment regimen for prostate cancer. Unlike the chemotherapeutic drug currently in use, Capridine has minimal bone marrow toxicity. This technology can readily be extended to other cancers, however the primary focus at present will be prostate cancer.
