Abstract
About this talk
Perillyl alcohol is a naturally occurring monoterpene related to limonene. We have synthesized a clinical-grade version, called NEO100 (NeOnc Technologies, Inc., Los Angeles, California), which has revealed a variety of highly promising characteristics that we are exploring toward the development of improved cancer-therapeutic regimens. NEO100 can be delivered via intranasal applications, which exploits direct nose-to-brain transport, and an ongoing clinical Phase 2 trial with recurrent glioblastoma patients is generating promising results. In preclinical brain cancer models, we have further shown that intranasal NEO100 can act as a carrier to bring along other cancer drugs, such as bortezomib, for improved delivery to the malignant lesions in the brain. When given via intra-arterial injection, NEO100 was shown to safely and reversibly open the blood-brain barrier (BBB) of mice, which enables other cancer drugs circulating in the bloodstream to effectively enter the brain and kill brain cancer cells; in the absence of NEO100, these drugs are unable to cross the BBB and do not exert brain-targeted activity. In further applications, we covalently conjugated NEO100 to several other, already established drugs. For example, conjugation of NEO100 to temozolomide (TMZ), an alkylating agent, resulted in a novel fusion compound called NEO212 (NeOnc Technologies). Our studies in diverse preclinical tumor models established that NEO212 is well-tolerated and highly effective against different cancer types, and a Phase 1 clinical trial has begun. — This talk will provide an overview of our research into the versatile applications of perillyl alcohol/NEO100 toward more effective cancer treatments.
Audience Take Away Notes:
- Perillyl alcohol (POH) enables direct nose to brain transport of drugs
- POH is able to open the blood-brain barrier (BBB)
- Conjugation of POH to established drugs enables BBB penetration
- POH has entered clinical trials as NEO100
Speaker
About the speaker
