Preclinical data on two newly designed mRNA molecules from Sunshine Biopharma Inc., of Montreal, showed they are effective at killing cancer cells grown in culture.
Tests were performed on a variety of cancer cells, including multidrug-resistant breast cancer cells, ovarian adenocarcinoma cells and pancreatic cancer cells, while toxicology studies using normal human cells showed that the mRNA molecules had little or no cytotoxic effects.
“I believe we’re one of the first companies to speak about using mRNA in treating cancer,” Steve Slilaty, CEO of Sunshine, told BioWorld.
The company began developing mRNA molecules about a year ago. Before COVID-19, Slilaty said, people didn’t know that you could use mRNA to express proteins directly in the human body.
“Now that we know you can administer mRNA to humans and get an effect as shown with mRNA COVID vaccines, we decided to apply it to cancer,” he said.
Sunshine’s next step, he added, will be to treat mice with the mRNA the company designed.
Adva-27a, a cancer DNA topoisomerase II alpha inhibitor, is the company’s flagship cancer compound. The company said it expects to enter a phase I trial for treating pancreatic cancer and multidrug-resistant breast cancer after completing GMP manufacturing and formulation of a 2-kg quantity for injection. It will be working with Jewish General Hospital, part of McGill University in Montreal, in the treatment’s development.
In July, Sunshine said it inhibited activity of Nrf2 using mRNA vaccine technology in a selected cell line. The company expects enhanced performance of cancer drugs and better overall therapeutic outcomes in cancer patients using mRNA injection before or after chemotherapy. It showed enhanced anticancer activity of etoposide (fourfold) using a small-molecule inhibitor of Nrf2 in multidrug-resistant breast cancer MCF-7/MDR cells.
Sunshine also is collaborating with the University of Arizona to determine in vivo safety, pharmacokinetics and the best dose of three university-owned PLpro inhibitors. Efficacy will then be determined in MA10 mice infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The company mapped mutations found in the delta COVID-19 variant and the other variants of concern it had identified, determining that the majority of the mutations are in the spike protein and only a few fall within the genomic sequences that encode nsp3, a multidomain protein that includes the PLpro enzyme. No mutations were mapped within the domain comprising the PLpro catalytic core.
In March, Sunshine closed a securities purchase agreement with certain institutional and accredited investors. The company issued about 2.301 million shares of its common stock together with investor warrants to purchase up to about 2.301 million shares of common stock, and about 1.302 million prefunded warrants with each warrant exercisable for one share of common stock, together with investor warrants to purchase up to about 1.302 million shares of common stock. Each share of common stock and accompanying investor warrant were sold together at a combined offering price of $2.22, and each prefunded warrant and accompanying investor warrant were sold together at a combined offering price of $2.219. Gross proceeds were approximately $8 million.
The company received $900,000 from RB Capital Partners Inc. last July in the form of convertible debt, with a conversion price set to a premium to market of 30 cents per share.
The Montreal-based company’s stock (NADAQ:SBFM) more than doubled on April 5, with shares closing 148% higher at about $5.61 each. Sunshine began trading on Nasdaq on Feb. 15, with shares closing at $2.39 each.
Founded in 2002, but refocused in 2009 on drug development, the move to Nasdaq was a defining moment. “That’s the major change to the company,” Slilaty said.
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