WHAT IS TEQ103?
TEQ103 is a very exciting, potential new breast and ovarian cancer drug acting via the estrogen receptor.
However, unlike other cancer drugs such as Tamoxifen and Fulvestrant, which block or degrade the estrogen receptor, TEQ103 over-activates a signaling pathway controlled by the estrogen receptor called a-UPR. Over-activating the a-UPR pathway results in caner cell death.
What's really exciting is that relatively new data on TEQ103 is demonstrating a capacity to ALSO kill triple negative breast cancer cells, which typically have very low levels of estrogen receptors.
What is the a-UPR?
Cancer cells are inherently stressed because they are replicating faster than the surrounding tissue. In order to keep up this faster pace of growth, they need to produce a lot of protein. Proteins are just long chains of amino acids that will naturally fold into specific shapes because of the chemical interactions between the different amino acids.
This protein folding happens in a compartment of the cell called the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) (not to be confused with the acronym for the estrogen receptor).
In order to protect itself from the stress of unfolded or misfolded proteins accumulating in the ER, cells have a protective pathway called the reactive/classical UPR.
The anticipatory Unfolded Protein Response (a-UPR) pathway is different from the reactive UPR. When cell growth is activated by estrogen receptor stimulation, the cell anticipates the coming need for increased protein synthesis and so the a-UPR pathway is activated.
HISTORY OF TEQ103
In 2023, Dr. David Shapiro and Dr. Paul Hergenrother, of the University of Illinois, licensed a compound called ErSO-TFPy to Oncoteq to conduct the IND/GLP testing required by the FDA prior to human clinical trials.
Oncoteq renamed the drug as TEQ103.
ErSO-TFPy is a modified verson of ErSO (licensed to Bayer in 2020) both of which had demonstrated an unprecedented ability to kill ER+ metastatic breast cancer tumors in the lungs, liver and brain in animal models.
Recent data has demonstrated that ErSO-TFPy is also capable of stimulating an immune system response by human Natural Killer cells. Therefore, additional laboratory testing is warranted to see if combining TEQ103 with immunotherapy (NK-92 natural killer cells) could prevent cancer cells resistant to treatment from emerging.