Cancer Moonshot Grant Awarded for Development of Riptide Drug Candidates
August 3, 2023
WASHINGTON, DC. – The White House has announced that Dr. Jelani Zarif of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has received a Cancer Moonshot Scholars R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health / National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI), for his continuing research using Riptide peptide drug candidates to address metastatic prostate cancer. Dr. Zarif becomes one of just eleven grant recipients in the initial cohort of Cancer Moonshot Scholars, representing the most promising research approaches to oncology indications.
This grant of over $450,000 annually for five years in research support, is entitled “Targeting M2-Tumor Associated Macrophages to overcome tumor immunity in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.” The focus of the grant is on the most virulent and resistant prostate tumor types, and follows previous funding from the NIH/NCI K22 mechanism totaling over $460,000 for the Zarif Laboratory.
Dr. Zarif remarked, “Prostate cancer is the fifth-deadliest cancer, and accounts for over 32,000 deaths each year in the United States alone. Our clinical armament to address this diagnosis is currently very limited. The therapeutic approach we’re developing to target immune-suppressive macrophages as a method to enhance anti-tumor immune responses, shows great promise on its own, as well as the capacity to improve the efficacy of other therapies.”
Zarif continued, “Prostate cancer has been shown to disproportionately affect men of direct African descent, so addressing this indication is a powerful stroke toward improving health disparities. However, one in eight of all males will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives, so research in this field is important to everyone. Our previous research found that the mannose receptor (CD206) was abundantly expressed by tumor-associated macrophages in castration-resistant prostate cancer tumors, including consented tissues obtained from our rapid autopsy program here at Johns Hopkins. My team is excited to bring the macrophage modulation approach to early clinical trial for the benefit of all patients.”
Dr. Clayton Yates, who is the John R. Lewis Professor of Pathology, Oncology, and Urology at Johns Hopkins, stated, “This work is an important extension of our preclinical research on macrophage cell types, where we identified a CD206 biomarker that is a powerful predictor of cancer survival. Statistical evidence shows that where the CD206 receptor is highly represented, survival rates are far lower. Targeting CD206 with peptide drug candidates developed by Riptide Bioscience, has shown excellent results in animal models of a number of cancers, and metastatic prostate cancer is a logical area of focus.”
Riptide Bioscience, Inc., with laboratories in Vallejo, California, maintains an intensive program of research into peptide-based therapeutics. Contact: info@riptidebio.com