Let That Sink In

Jul 26, 2023

“Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” October 26, 2022

Give Elon Musk credit.

Close to one year later, “let that sink in”, referring straightforwardly to the actual sink that Elon carries, and on a deeper level to his takeover of Twitter, is still one of the best double entendres ever.

Well, Elon, we see your meaning and raise you one more entendre to make your now famous phrase a triple entendre.

The EpicentRx anticancer agent, AdAPT-001, is an adenovirus which carries a transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) trap that it expresses at extremely high levels both in and out of tumors. This TGF-β trap acts like a sink, which absorbs the cytokine or protein, TGF-β, that tumors use to paralyze the immune response against it and to lay down excessive scar tissue, which limits drug delivery. Read more about AdAPT-001 and its expression of the TGF-β trap in an article entitled, “Toxicology and biodistribution of AdAPT-001, a replication-competent type 5 adenovirus with a trap for the immunosuppressive cytokine, TGF-beta” by EpicentRx authors here.

Results from the recently completed first-in-man Phase 1 anticancer trial with AdAPT-001 demonstrate that it is well tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities or related serious adverse events (SAEs) and that as a single agent it is active against a range of several hard-to-treat, treatment-resistant tumor types like sarcoma. A manuscript that describes these results has been submitted for publication.

Meanwhile, in an ongoing Phase 2 trial, which has enrolled over 20 patients thus far, AdAPT-001 is given with a checkpoint inhibitor to evaluate for evidence of synergy. Preliminary evidence of activity and safety has already been reported.

Let that sink in.