Why cancer patients experience them
Chemotherapy targets cells that are cycling, or undergoing the process of cell division: both cancer cells and normal, healthy cells. As a result, chemotherapy destroys both cancer cells (a good thing!) and normal, healthy cells (a bad thing!).
Chemotherapy targets healthy cells and cancer cells that are cycling (i.e., undergoing cell division process)
As a result, both healthy cells and cancer cells are destroyed by chemotherapy
Chemotherapy destroys many different types of healthy cells
Chemotherapy destroys many types of normal, healthy cells throughout the body that naturally undergo rapid cycling: bone marrow, GI tract, and hair follicles, for example. This leads to a wide range of side effects, from unpleasant to life-threatening and fatal.
Chemotherapy-induced side effects can limit a patient’s ability to fight cancer
Physicians often reduce the dose of chemotherapy and/or delay chemotherapy treatment when the burden of side effects is too harmful or unbearable for patients.
Chemotherapy delays and dose reductions can reduce response rates and survival.
Cancer patients deserve chemoprotection.
ALRN-6924: A biomarker‑driven, selective chemoprotective medicine
ALRN-6924 is a novel medicine designed to selectively protect healthy cells in patients with cancers that harbor p53 mutations to reduce or eliminate chemotherapy-induced side effects without interrupting chemotherapy’s destruction of cancer cells.
By treating patients with p53-mutated cancer, we can be sure that we protect only their healthy cells from chemotherapy and not their cancer cells. Here’s why.
ALRN-6924 temporarily pauses cycling in healthy cells, shielding them from chemotherapy
Healthy cells always have normal p53 thus can be protected
ALRN-6924 does not interrupt the cycling of p53-mutant cancer cells, thus not protecting cancer cells from chemotherapy
Cancer cells with mutant p53 are not protected
p53 is a protein that naturally suppresses tumor formation and is called “the Guardian of the Genome” in cancer biology. A p53 mutation is the most prevalent mutation in cancer. About half of all cancer patients have p53-mutated cancer. In certain types of cancer, the percentage of patients with p53-mutated cancer is much higher.
p53, also known as tumor protein 53, comes from the TP53 gene that regulates cell cycling (i.e., the process of cell division) in normal, healthy cells.
In patients with p53-mutated cancer, p53 cannot regulate cell cycle in their cancer cells. But, p53 does continue to regulate cell cycle in their normal, healthy cells. We harness this universal mechanism throughout the body to protect patients’ healthy cells against chemotherapy-induced side effects.
Patient with p53-mutant cancer receives ALRN-6924 before receiving chemotherapy
ALRN-6924 activates normal p53 in healthy cells
Activated normal p53 up regulates p21, which pauses cell cycling in healthy cells
Patient with p53-mutant cancer receives chemotherapy
Chemotherapy’s attack on cancer cells with mutant p53 is uninterrupted
Healthy cells have normal p53. In patients with p53-mutated cancer, ALRN-6924 activates normal p53, which temporarily pauses cell cycle in normal cells. ALRN-6924 cannot work in p53-mutated cancer cells. So, cancer cells continue cycling and chemotherapy continues to target them.
Interested in partnering with Aileron?
Please contact us.
