NEW YORK – Aprea Therapeutics said on Wednesday that it has received funding from the National Cancer Institute to advance development of DNA damage response inhibitors for the treatment of ovarian cancer harboring homologous recombination mutations.
The NCI funding, a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award, will provide Aprea with just under $2 million over two years to develop these drugs. The grant is specifically aiming to address needs for patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer harboring CCNE1, BRCA1, BRCA2, or other genetic mutations associated with defects in homologous recombination.
Aprea is developing two candidates for the treatment of these patients: ATR inhibitor ATRN-119 and a preclinical candidate, WEE1 inhibitor ATRN-W1051. With the NCI funding, Aprea hopes to advance development of both candidates and explore them as a combination therapy for these ovarian cancer patients.
The funding will support preclinical research of the activity and tolerability of ATRN-119 and ATRN-W1051 combination in CCNE1-mutant high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Aprea said these studies could identify relevant biomarkers of sensitivity to the drugs and could inform future clinical trial protocols.
In January, the firm began a Phase I trial of ATRN-119 in solid tumors harboring mutations in DNA damage response pathways. Aprea expects to file an investigational new drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration for ATRN-W1051 in Q4 2023.