Newsmakers

At A time when the term ‘Indian’ is being bandied for all the wrong reasons, the recent reports on Dr Himanshu Brahmbhatt’s watershed findings are sure to put things back in perspective. the Indian Australian scientist has yet again reinforced the fact that migrants from the subcontinent are as dedicated, hard working and goal oriented as ever; more significantly though, he holds out hope to all those cancer sufferers out there.

Dr Brahmbhatt and Dr Jennifer MacDiarmid, founders of cancer therapeutics company EnGeneIcs are all set to commence human clinical trials. The duo has made a world breakthrough

We are about to commence human clinical trials. It is a transition from a pre-clinical to a clinicalstage company.

Could you explain how the “Trojan horse” principle works? Is this a pioneering effort? What significance does it have for long term cancer treatment?

When cancer cells become drug resistant, a condition that is often seen following chemotherapy in patients, even the most promising anti-cancer drugs fail. Drug-resistance is one of the main reasons for death in cancer patients. there are many different molecular pathways that are switched on by drug-resistant cancer cells and some of these proteins can act through and once inside the cancer cell, the nanocell spills the anti-cancer drug, thus killing the cancer cells. this dual sequential therapy can be repeated many times until the cancer is eliminated. the human trials are set to commence within the next 4 weeks. Several hundred cancer patients have written to us seeking to participate in our clinical trials. However, this process of screening patients and enrollment in the trial will be carried out by the oncologists at the hospitals where the trial will be done. the full trial with over 40 cancer patients can take over 8 months to complete.

We have demonstrated the success of the above breakthrough concept in several hundred mice carrying drug resistant human cancers and even in dogs suffering from late stage relapsed drug-resistant cancers.

When are human trials set to begin? Who has volunteered so far and what is the duration of trials?

What comes thereafter?

If the early results in the clinical trial are promising with respect to safety of the EDVbased therapeutic, it is likely that we may commence an additional efficacy trial in a major cancer indication where there may not be any treatment options at this stage.

Additionally, EnGeneIC is working towards establishing collaborations/licensing deals with major pharmaceutical companies in USA, to tackle a number of other delivery problems as well. like pumps which can pump the drug out of the cancer cell. Our concept of sequential therapy rojan Horses) to enter into the same cancer cells to deliver different payloads to treat such cancers,

As they inch closer to their dream, one small step for Brahmbhatt and MacDiarmid could well mean a giant leap for mankind.

Dr Brahmbhatt is no newcomer to Indian Link readers though. Since EnGeneIC’s landmark publication in the July 2009 issue of Nature Biotechnology journal, Indian Link caught up with him yet again.

Can you tell us in what stage of progress your research is currently in?

We demonstrate for the first time that the first wave of targeted nanocells carry molecules called “small interfering RNAs” which can be designed to switch off the production of the drugresistance causing proteins. Once the defense mechanism of the cancer cells is disabled, the cells become sensitive to anti-cancer drugs. therefore, we send in the next wave of targeted nanocells through the blood system but this time the nanocells carry the anti-cancer drugs to which the cancer cells were formerly completely resistant. We discovered, that the cancer cells will again open doors to allow the second trojan Horse (targeted nanocells packaged with drugs)

Europe and Japan with a view to co-developing several anti-cancer therapeutics based on the EDV technology. this would allow us to fast track the process to get such therapeutics out on the market so that cancer patients worldwide may benefit.

How long then will it take for the process to reach commercial viability and availability? It can take three to four years to get such therapeutics to market but in the meantime, cancer patients can benefit from the several clinical trials that would precede market entry. What does this recent breakthrough mean for cancer sufferers and for yourselves as dedicated researchers?

If the breakthrough technology were to work effectively in human cancer patients, then it should be possible to treat cancers that have relapsed due to drug resistance. this problem is severe and we often hear that a cancer patient is treated with conventional chemotherapy, the patient responds and the family feels relieved but then at a later stage, the cancer returns and the clinicians state that the cancer is now resistant to drugs and nothing else can be done. that is a terrible thing for anyone to have to hear. The horrific thoughts and emotions that the family has to go through while watching a loved one deteriorate over time, feel helpless and eventually observe the severe pain and death…….no human or animal should have to go through that. If we can help and save a person from such a fate, the life of a cancer researcher would well and truly be fulfilled.