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Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A (VEGF-A) is an angiogenic agent that drives blood vessel formation in solid tumors and other diseases, such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Several therapies that target the ability of VEGF to stimulate angiogenesis have been approved. These therapies regulate VEGF-A activity by binding VEGF-A, thereby blocking VEGF-A from binding to its receptor on target cells. This technology utilizes a different approach to regulating VEGF-A activity by providing a VEGF-A protein antagonist that is produced by engineering native VEGF-A protein.

Castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is characterized by androgen-independent cancer cells that have adapted to the depletion of hormones and continue to grow. Abnormal androgen receptor signaling is known to drive advanced castrate-resistant prostate cancer.

The National Cancer Institute Cancer Genetics Branch is seeking statements of capability or interest from parties interested in collaborative research to further develop, evaluate, or commercialize mouse epithelial cancer cell lines.

RNA nanoparticles have the potential to serve as excellent drug or imaging delivery systems due to their designability and versatility. Furthermore, the RNA nanoparticles of the invention are also capable of self-assembly and potentially form nanotubes of various shapes which offer potentially broad uses in medical implants, gene therapy, nanocircuits, scaffolds and medical testing.

Cancer stem cells are a minority population of cells in tumors that initiate and sustain the cancer and which are resistant to therapy; they may cause tumors to recur after curative treatment.  Current therapies generally do not target cancer stem cells.

Researchers at the NCI Radiation Oncology Branch  and NIH CIT Center for Molecular Modeling developed a tetrahydroxamate chelation technology that provides a more-stable Zr-89 complex as an immuno-PET cancer imaging agent. In either the linear or the macrocyclic form, the tetrahydroxamate complexes exhibit greater stability as chelating agents compared to Zr-89 complexed to the siderophore desferrioxamine B (DFB), a trihydroxamate, which represent

GATA-3 is a transcription factor that is highly expressed in normal cells of the mammary luminal epithelium. GATA-3 plays a regulatory role in determining the fate of cells in the mammary gland. Disruption of GATA-3 expression leads to defects in the development of mammary cells, including an inability to differentiate properly into the correct cell type. GATA-3 function is also disrupted in various breast cancer models indicating that GATA-3 has tumor suppressive properties in normal cells.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a naturally occurring cellular post-transcriptional gene regulation process that utilizes small double-stranded RNAs to trigger and guide gene silencing. By introducing synthetic RNA duplexes called small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs), we can harness the RNAi machinery for therapeutic gene control and the treatment of various diseases.
 

Development of successful HIV vaccine immunogens continues to be a major challenge.  Although gp120 was identified as having significant potential as a vaccine immunogen, attempts to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies using recombinant gp120 failed.  The highly flexible gp120 may present numerous conformations to the humoral immune system that are not found on the viral spike.

Antibody drug conjugates (ADC) can demonstrate high efficacy as cancer therapeutics, however, much more can be done to improve their efficacy and safety profile. Site-specific antibody drug conjugation is a promising way to do this. Scientists at the NCI’s Laboratory of Experimental Immunology have identified a fully human monoclonal antibody, m860, that binds to cell surface-associated Her2 with affinity comparable to that of Trastuzumab (Herceptin) but to a different epitope.