Need
Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of death among elderly men in the industrially developed countries. If it is diagnosed at an early stage, it can be cured efficiently, but unfortunately many cases are detected at an advanced stage, when the probability of the metastasis is high. The vast majority of prostate cancer deaths are due to metastasis. There is an urgent need to develop novel and innovative therapeutic strategies to treat prostate cancer, particularly to prevent metastasis and/or to attenuate the spread of the metastatic tumors.
Solution
TMPRSS2 is a type II transmembrane serine protease which is dominantly expressed in the prostate epithelium under the regulation of androgen hormones. Upregulated TMPRSS2 expression was detected in the majority of human prostate cancer metastases. Several lines of evidence suggest that TMPRSS2 promotes cancer cell invasion and metastasis to distant organs. Inhibition of TMPRSS2 is a promising therapeutic approach to reduce the incidence or progression of metastasis in patients with prostate cancer.
EvolVeritas developed a unique proprietary technology to produce active TMPRSS2 and developed selective and efficient inhibitors against TMPRSS2 by directed protein evolution. These inhibitors block the activity of TMPRSS2 protease with high efficiency in in vitro experiments.