Hoth mRNA 'Frameshifting' Therapy HT-KIT for Mast Cell Cancers Reduces Size, Spread

 Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOTH), a patient-focused biopharmaceutical company, today highlights recent findings from North Carolina State University, that its new treatment for mast cell cancers, known as HT-KIT, reduces the number of mast cells by "mutating" the messenger RNA (mRNA) before it can deliver instructions for manufacturing the gene responsible for cell proliferation.

"Current treatments for mast cell cancers target signaling from the receptor encoded by the c-KIT gene, and the efficacy of current therapies can be negatively affected by c-KIT mutations associated with disease development," says Glenn Cruse, assistant professor of immunology at North Carolina State University and a Scientific Advisor to Hoth and corresponding author of the research. "We are targeting the gene itself, regardless of mutation. If we target the gene that drives progression, then we can target the disease."

"We are altering the message that makes the protein – flipping an 'on' switch to 'off,'" Cruse says. "If you get mRNA to produce a protein that is mutated and severely truncated, your cell will recognize that and degrade the message so that the protein isn't produced."

The researchers used their frameshifted c-KIT mRNA approach on mast cell leukemia cells in vitro and found that KIT protein expression, signaling and function were reduced. The cancer cells stopped proliferating and began dying within hours. In a mouse model, tumor growth and infiltration of other organs were reduced, and tumor cell death increased when the frameshifted c-KIT mRNA was induced.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hoth-therapeutics-mrna-frameshifting-therapy-130100287.html