Kalamazoo company fights painful chemotherapy side effect

For patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy, mucositis can be a painful side affect. The inflammation and ulcers in the lining of the mouth, throat or gastrointestinal tract can be so severe that patients stop cancer treatment.

In severe cases, mucositis prevents eating and often results in hospitalization.

Kalamazoo’s NephRX says the company’s peptide NX002 has shown good results in countering the side affect when tested in an animal model of oral mucositis.

Mucositis afflicts approximately 15 to 40 percent of patients receiving standard-dose chemotherapy and 76 to 100 percent of patients receiving chemotherapy for bone marrow transplant.

It is estimated 400,000 patients in the United States alone are affected by mucositis each year. And the incidence rises as the use of radiation and chemotherapy increases.

It affects virtually all patients receiving radiation therapy for head and neck and gastrointestinal cancers.

NX002 is a peptide derived from the naturally occurring growth factor AMP-18. It has been shown to stimulate the growth of epithelial cells and to promote wound healing after injury.

Its multiple biological properties include the ability to protect cells from injury, stimulate cell growth and migration, and increase the accumulation of proteins that bind cells together.

A peptide is a molecule formed by joining two or more amino acids. When the number of amino acids is less than about 50 these molecules are named peptides while larger sequences are referred to as proteins.

NX002 may also have applications in acute and chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

“Based on these positive data, we can now start the detailed toxicity studies needed to support clinical testing of NX002 as a potential new treatment for oral mucositis,” says F. Gary Toback, M.D., Ph.D., founding Scientist of NephRx and Professor of Medicine and Cell Physiology at the University of Chicago Medical School.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: F. Gary Toback, NephRX