Using Novel Redox Active Molecule Approaches that Both Enhance Anti-Tumor Immune Responses and Limit Normal Tissue Injury
Project Lead: Jon Houtman
Funding Approved: Fiscal Year 23
Project Status: In Progress
Funded amount: $600,000 over two years
The Redox Regulation and Immunological Responses During Cancer Therapy project is making strides towards its ultimate goal of revolutionizing lung cancer treatment.
The project aims to collect preliminary data and establish new cross-college collaborations to enable the development of a new National Cancer Institute (NCI) P50 SPORE grant or a new NCI P01 program project grant in lung cancer. If successful, the P50 SPORE and/or P01 grant will substantially impact research and discovery at the UI by enhancing its ability to identify novel treatments for lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death.
Activities to date:
- Using specific mouse lung tumor models, the project has studied the effect of pharmacological ascorbate on the body's anti-tumor response. These in-depth studies have offered a clearer insight into the complex anti-tumor T cell response
- Designed and synthesized a pioneering superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic
- Developed a pilot trial in stage 1 non-small cell lung cancer to determine if ascorbate will work well with immunotherapy. AstraZeneca has approved the trial, which is anticipated to begin in fall 2023
- Established process and workflow to provide critical prelimary data related to animal studies and clinical trials that will be used for the P01 or P50 proposal
- Formed an advisory board consisting of internal and external stakeholders to provide feedback as the project develops a full P01 or P50 proposal for submission
Next Steps:
In year two of the project the team will kick off a human clinical trial, continue animal studies, start to meet with the new advisory board, and dive deeper into year one findings with the goal of developing materials for scientific publications.