Riptide Bioscience Announces NCI Contract to Evaluate RP Drug Candidates in Combination with Radiotherapy
October 8, 2018
SAN FRANCISCO, CA. – Riptide Bioscience, Inc., today announced that it has been awarded a $299,000 contract from the National Cancer Institute to evaluate its proprietary drug candidate, RP-185, in combination with radiotherapy.
The grant is entitled “Validation and Optimization of RP-185 as Adjuvant to Exploit the Immune Response Generated by Radiation.” Co-Principal Investigators for the grant-supported research are Dr. George Martin, President of Riptide Bioscience, and Dr. Zeljko Vujaskovic, Director of Translational Radiation Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Radiotherapy is used in over half of cancer treatment regimens in Western countries. During a single year in the US alone, it is estimated that 470,000 patients received radiotherapy as part of their cancer treatments, a figure expected to rise to 575,000 by 2020.
Dr. Martin commented, “While generally beneficial to the patient, radiation is known to recruit macrophage cells to the irradiated tissue. That can be counterproductive: tumors are known to induce macrophages to secrete immunosuppressive factors, reducing the activity of tumor-attacking immune cells. The drug candidates developed by Riptide have been shown to reverse this effect.”
Dr. Martin continued, “Radiation induces an immune response in the tumor as well as in distant non-irradiated metastases. We expect that our agents will increase the local response in the irradiated tumor as well as in the distant metastases, improving the therapeutic outcome.”
Dr. Martin concluded, “The benefits of combining these therapies could be very significant. We’re delighted to work with the radiotherapy experts at the University of Maryland medical school to explore this promising therapeutic approach.”
Riptide Bioscience, Inc., with laboratories in Vallejo, California, maintains an intensive program of research into peptide-based therapeutics. Contact: info@riptidebio.com