Science: Animal Models for Cancer Interception and Precision Prevention Virtual Workshop, 10/13-14/2022

 This two-day workshop is an educational program by NCI/NIH. The theme is Animal Models for Cancer Prevention research.

The NCI funds many groups of researchers. Usually, researchers working on a specific subject  belong to a few study sections, and they are enclosed in the group. But sometimes the NCI program directors attempt to bring those researchers together in different combinations, offering chance to interact with researchers in related but different fields. Interesting, is it not.

For cancer prevention, knowing mechanism of cancer development, and modeling the process in animals, are essential to develop methods (drug, vaccine, etc) to prevent cancer.

Cancers in different organs are considered different diseases. Cancer in pancreas may be driven by different mechanisms or by different set of genes from cancer in colon. So we need to build models for each cancer. 

As such, scientists need different animal models for different cancers and work on different prevention strategies.

Usually, primary study model animals are rodents (mice, rats). With many advantages as a model for research purpose, they are the first choice for developing disease model.

Investigational New Drug (IND) application is a major milestone for drug developers. For startup biotech or pharma companies, whether they can take their drug candidate to IND or not is a determinant of the company's fate or impacting factor on the stock price. Yet, IND is not a magical entity. IND application is basically paperwork and datasets submitted to the government. Companies need to have specific knowledge to file the IND paperwork and compelling datasets proving the efficacy of their drug.

 

The FDA requires two models for IND filing. Hence, they need rodent model and another animal model (dog, cat, pig, etc). With various reasons, primates are fading out overall as a research model. The government and scientists are searching for models with good clinical translation relevance and feasibility. Cost is a factor, too. Non-rodent models are far more expensive.

This workshop covered latest results from cancer model mice, as well as non-rodent animal cancer models.

 

I was not very familiar with non-rodent cancer models. The workshop was a good learning opportunity. There were talks on dog and pig models.

For example, I had no idea veterinarian scientists are running trial for cancer vaccine on dogs. For the trial, about 800 dogs were enrolled with owners' consent, and 400 dogs received the vaccine, the rest received placebo. The trial is assessing if the dogs develop cancers and the vaccine reduce the development. Early assessment did not look very promising, and they encountered some unexpected findings (many cancers found in both groups) apparently. But these stories are at least amusing to me.

The workshop was fun to attend. Online format is a huge plus for convenience.

Book: "Conquering Alzheimer Disease" by Susumu Shimoyama

 Sometimes I buy things from Amazon Japan. Find something of interest, leave it in cart, and once they accumulate, I order them.

Exchange rate for USD to JPY was 115 JPY/USD on Jan 2022. Now it is 144 JPY/USD. What I buy from Japan with USD now is like 25% off from Jan 2022. Lucky enough.

I ordered 24 books. One of the books is this nonfiction/documentary on Alzheimer drug development. Written by Susumu Shimoyama, a nonfiction writer, published on 1/8/2021. Language is Japanese.

Until recently, we did not have drug for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have seen over 200 failed clinical trials. Huge amount of money and efforts for nothing. Some pharmas went bankrupt or merged because of failed trials.

As in this documentary, Eisai, a Japanese pharma, found Aricept, a drug that helps neuronal functions and thus helps cognitive functions for a while. My mother was taking the drug for her AD if I remember correctly.

Then, amyloid-targeting drug (antibody drug against amyloid-beta protein, a major pathology component of AD) came to the market.

This documentary covers the stories of AD drugs and their developers. 

Each chapter describes different players. Eisai drug development team, international familial AD consortium, AD transgenic mouse generators, AD vaccine and amyloid antibody drug developers, leading scientists on amyloid cascade hypothesis, scientists chasing non-"mainstream" target, and so on.

I really enjoyed reading those. Went through this 330 page book in 2 days. 

 

The stories actually are dramatic. AD is a lethal disease and people die. Before they die, they go through dreaded processes of loss. 

Some of "inside company power struggle" episodes reminded me of "Kousaku Shima", a Japanese manga series. The manga series were about career of a corporate "salaryman" worker and were very popular. As corporate culture and common sense for work environment have changed quite a bit in this past 20 years, I am not sure if the series are still popular, though.

The book ends with the FDA approval of Aducanumab, an antibody drug for AD, on 2021, under somewhat controversial circumstances. 

Controversial as it was, it was undeniable that the FDA approval gave some momentum and hope to AD drug developers. Now, second anti-amyloid drug is about to launch, and other drugs are being tested. 

New drugs that work represent humankinds' progress and answers to people's hope.

Also, new drug is where the money is.

As a researcher/scientist, I have a few ideas as well as questions on the AD drug field. Yet the progress in 35 years portrayed in this book was undeniably important.

[book cover]

Many American AD researchers and scientists were interviewed and appeared in the book. This book ought to be translated to English.