Harnessing Tumor-Penetrating Peptides to Modulate the Pancreatic Tumor Immune Microenvironment

Cancer Equities, Novel Therapeutics & Platforms, Immunotherapies & Personalized Vaccines

Gregory Botta, MD, PhD

Diana Hargreaves, PhD (Salk)

In 2030, pancreatic cancer (PC) will be the #1 cause of cancer-related death. This is due to a very low survival rate and limited treatment options that have poor responses. Our current chemotherapy does not work due to a thick barricade that surrounds PC that makes it hard for therapies to get into the tumor. Our team has discovered and validated new small molecules called peptides that can target drugs directly to these tumor barriers and then pass through them to access the cancer and immune cells within PC. A benefit to the peptide-targeting technique is that we avoid damaging healthy tissue. We will use these peptides to boost the immune system's ability to fight cancer cells and then reduce cells that block this response. We anticipate moving these into early clinical trials at UCSD.