Tau Therapeutics presents data of T-type calcium channel inhibitors in treatment of pancreatic cancer

Tau Therapeutics LLC announced today that its academic collaborator, University of Virginia Professor Todd Bauer, MD, presented data at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the premier cancer research event held in San Diego, California from April 5-9. His poster, entitled "Combination therapy with a MEK inhibitor plus T-type calcium channel inhibitor is highly effective in patient-derived pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas," concludes that combination therapy with the MEK inhibitor trametinib plus Tau's T-type calcium channel inhibitor mibefradil results in significant growth inhibition of KRAS-mutant patient-derived pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma orthotopic xenograft tumors in mice, including both treatment naïve tumors and tumors chronically exposed to prior trametinib and lapatinib.

"We are pleased to have Dr. Bauer explore an innovative use of T-type calcium channel inhibitors in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, an indication for which we hold orphan drug status," said Andrew Krouse, Tau's President and CEO. "We are intrigued by the ability of T-type calcium channel blockers to overcome resistance to targeted therapies when administered in combination with them."

Tau already focuses on overcoming resistance to cancer therapies with its patent-pending Interlaced Therapy™, the sequential administration of a T-type calcium channel blocker prior to each course of a standard-of-care cytotoxin, which has been shown in vivo to both overcome drug resistance and increase efficacy.