RCS - Angle PLC - Parsortix used in research paper from ETH Zurich

AngleAnnouncement

24/01/2025 10:15

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20250124:nRSX5307Ua&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 5307U  Angle PLC  24 January 2025

 For immediate release  24 January 2025

 

ANGLE plc ("the Company")

 

CLINICAL TRIAL POWERED BY PARSORTIX SYSTEM PROVIDES FIRST-IN-CLASS data FOR
NOVEL APPROACH TO CANCER treatment

 

Parsortix system used to identify patients with highly metastatic CTC clusters
for targeted treatment

 

New treatment strategy provides 'uncharted opportunity' to target metastasis
responsible for the vast majority of cancer deaths

 

 

ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company with
innovative circulating tumour cell (CTC) solutions for use in research, drug
development and clinical oncology, is delighted to announce the publication of
breakthrough research from Professor Nicola Aceto's team at the research
university ETH Zurich, Switzerland, in the journal Nature Medicine.

 

The publication reports on an interventional multi-centre Phase 1 clinical
trial using the repurposed, FDA approved drug, digoxin, to treat metastatic
breast cancer patients. The Parsortix(®) system played a critical role in
selecting patients for this targeted treatment by identifying those who were
positive for CTC clusters (two or more tumour cells travelling together in the
bloodstream). This enabled researchers to enrol only patients who might
benefit from digoxin treatment, which has been shown to dissociate highly
metastatic CTC clusters in preclinical studies(1).

 

The primary endpoint for the trial was successfully achieved with a
significant reduction in CTC cluster size reported in the treatment group.
This proof-of-principle study paves the way for the development of a novel
class of drugs that prevent or suppress the development of metastasis. The
Parsortix system is already well established in the Aceto Lab and Professor
Aceto has co-founded the company PAGE Therapeutics (pagetherapeutics.com) to
develop novel compounds which are highly effective at disassociating CTC
clusters. It is anticipated that the Parsortix system will play a crucial role
in the pre-clinical and clinical development of these compounds, including
dose finding and selection of the most appropriate patients for clinical
trials.

 

Professor Nicola Aceto, Aceto Lab, ETH Zurich, commented:

"Given that the spread of cancer accounts for the vast majority of
cancer-related deaths, the effective prevention and suppression of metastasis
is an elusive goal for clinicians worldwide. Standard-of-care treatments are
typically developed based on their cytotoxic activity and are not necessarily
designed to interfere with metastasis-relevant mechanisms. Consequently, there
is an uncharted opportunity for the development of targeted agents that
disrupt the causes of metastasis themselves.

 

While clinical outcomes were not assessed in this proof-of-concept study, the
trial provides first-in-class evidence that supports the development of novel
treatments targeting the metastatic process."

 

ANGLE's Chief Scientific Officer, Karen Miller, commented:

"We are delighted to report on this first-in-class treatment approach reported
by the Aceto Lab which has the potential to significantly reduce the burden of
metastatic disease and improve patient outcomes. Given its unique design and
ability to capture CTC clusters, we anticipate that the Parsortix system will
be a crucial component for the development of drugs targeting the metastatic
cascade by facilitating the selection of patients who are most likely to
respond to treatment and allow continuous monitoring to determine the
pharmacodynamic effects of the drugs. Alongside our ongoing collaboration with
ETH Zurich, we look forward to working with PAGE Therapeutics to support their
development drugs targeting metastatic spread."

 

The peer-reviewed publication is published in the journal Nature Medicine and
available for review at https://angleplc.com/resources/publications/
(https://angleplc.com/resources/publications/)

 

Background information

 

CTCs are intact, living cancer cells circulating in the blood and are well
established as the precursors of metastasis. Whilst individual CTCs face
formidable obstacles in the bloodstream, including attack by immune cells and
disruptive fluid shear forces, the aggregation of cells into clusters has been
shown to enhance metastatic potential by up to 100 times through enhanced
immune evasion, proliferative advantage and increased cell adhesion which
supports metastatic seeding. Furthermore, CTC clusters have been found to
exhibit increased resistance to cancer drugs, making them harder to treat.

 

With the vast majority of cancer deaths caused by the metastatic spread of the
primary cancer to other organs, such as bones, liver, lungs and brain, a
targeted treatment to disassociate CTC clusters could enable CTCs to be
targeted by the body's own immune system and increase the effectiveness of
existing cytotoxic treatments. This could result in a profound improvement in
treatment success and patient survival across all solid tumours.

 

The patented Parsortix system enables highly sensitive, marker-independent CTC
isolation from a standard blood sample.  It is a unique system, capable of
harvesting large CTC clusters for downstream analysis which remain intact, and
with their associated immune cells, for visualisation and analysis enabling
the development and implementation of a completely new method for suppressing
cancer metastasis.

 

Using ANGLE's Parsortix system, the Aceto lab has demonstrated that, in mouse
models, disassociation of CTC clusters using an ATPase inhibitor (like the FDA
cleared cardiac drug, digoxin, used to treat heart failure and atrial
fibrillation) leads to a near total elimination of metastatic cancer spread
with treated animals showing 80x less metastasis compared with untreated
animals (peer-reviewed publication in the journal Cell
https://angleplc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/PIIS009286741831571X.pdf
(https://angleplc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/PIIS009286741831571X.pdf) ).
The new study, demonstrating CTC cluster disassociation in breast cancer
patients, opens up the potential to evaluate reduction in cancer metastasis
and increased overall survival in breast cancer patients with a new class of
drugs under-pinned by the assessment of CTC clusters using the Parsortix
system.

 

1.   Gkountela et al. Circulating tumor cell clustering shapes DNA
methylation to enable metastasis seeding. Cell  (2022)

 

 

For further information:

 

 ANGLE plc                               +44 (0) 1483 343434
 Andrew Newland, Chief Executive

 Ian Griffiths, Finance Director

 Berenberg (NOMAD and Broker)            +44 (0) 20 3207 7800

 Toby Flaux, Ciaran Walsh, Milo Bonser

 FTI Consulting

 Simon Conway, Ciara Martin              +44 (0) 203 727 1000

 Matthew Ventimiglia (US)                +1 (212) 850 5624

 

 

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

 

For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on
https://angleplc.com/investor-relations/glossary/
(https://angleplc.com/investor-relations/glossary/)

 

 

Notes for editors

 

About ANGLE plc

 

ANGLE is a world-leading liquid biopsy company with innovative circulating
tumour cell (CTC) solutions for use in research, drug development and clinical
oncology using a simple blood sample. ANGLE's FDA cleared and patent protected
CTC harvesting technology known as the Parsortix(®) PC1 System enables
complete downstream analysis of the sample including whole cell imaging and
proteomic analysis and full genomic and transcriptomic molecular analysis.

 

ANGLE's commercial businesses are focusing on clinical services and diagnostic
products. The clinical services business is offered through ANGLE's
GCLP-compliant laboratories. Services include custom made assay development
and clinical trial testing for pharma. Products include the Parsortix system,
associated consumables and assays.

 

Over 100 peer-reviewed publications have demonstrated the performance of the
Parsortix system. For more information, visit www.angleplc.com
(http://www.angleplc.com)

 

 

Any reference to regulatory authorisations such as FDA clearance, CE marking
or UK MHRA registration shall be read in conjunction with the full intended
use of the product:

 

The Parsortix(®) PC1 system is an in vitro diagnostic device intended to
enrich circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from peripheral blood collected in
K(2)EDTA tubes from patients diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. The
system employs a microfluidic chamber (a Parsortix cell separation cassette)
to capture cells of a certain size and deformability from the population of
cells present in blood. The cells retained in the cassette are harvested by
the Parsortix PC1 system for use in subsequent downstream assays.  The end
user is responsible for the validation of any downstream assay. The standalone
device, as indicated, does not identify, enumerate or characterize CTCs and
cannot be used to make any diagnostic/prognostic claims for CTCs, including
monitoring indications or as an aid in any disease management and/or treatment
decisions.

 

 

This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  NRAFZGZMLFDGKZM