fimepinostat (CUDC-907) / Curis - LARVOL DELTA

Fimepinostat is a dual inhibitor of tumor and angiogenesis in glioblastoma and synergizes with temozolomide through suppressing MYC. (PubMed, Korean J Physiol Pharmacol) - "Mechanism studies confirmed that fimepinostat acts on glioblastoma cells through suppressing Akt/MYC. Our findings suggest that dual targeting of tumor and angiogenesis by fimepinostat may provide an alternative approach for anti-glioblastoma therapy."

Journal • Brain Cancer • Glioblastoma • Oncology • Solid Tumor

Molecular mechanisms of unique therapeutic potential of CUDC-907 for MEF2D fusion-driven BCP-ALL. (PubMed, Signal Transduct Target Ther) - "Furthermore, this compound's effectiveness and safety were confirmed in both MH/NRASG12D BCP-ALL mouse model and MB patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model, outperforming conventional therapies. These results support the therapeutic potential of dual-pathway inhibition in MEF2D fusion (+) BCP-ALL and suggest CUDC-907 as a promising candidate for precision treatment in fusion-driven leukemias with similar molecular dependencies."

IO biomarker • Journal • Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia • Hematological Malignancies • Leukemia • Oncology • BCL2 • BCL9 • HDAC9 • HNRNPUL1 • MEF2D

Histone deacetylase inhibitors target DNA replication regulators and replication stress in Ewing sarcoma cells. (PubMed, Cancer Res Commun) - "In this study, we identified that multiple HDAC inhibitors, including fimepinostat, romidepsin and panobinostat, downregulate the levels of the RRM1, RRM2, CHK1, and WEE1 proteins in Ewing sarcoma cells, and impair DNA replication. Additionally, proteomic studies identified that HDAC inhibitors also downregulate the level of the BRD4 protein, a BET bromodomain protein that regulates both the transcriptional program of the EWS::FLI1 oncoprotein and DNA replication. Overall, these results provide novel insight into the molecular mechanisms by which HDAC inhibitors target cancer cells, regulate DNA replication, and inhibit the cellular response to DNA replication stress."

Journal • Ewing Sarcoma • Oncology • Sarcoma • Solid Tumor • BRD4 • CDT1 • CHEK1 • EWSR1 • FLI1 • MCM2 • RRM1 • RRM2

Fimepinostat, Combination HDAC and Pi3-kinase Inhibitor Tumor-Directed Therapy for Cushing Disease (clinicaltrials.gov) - P2 | N=20 | Recruiting | Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles | Not yet recruiting ➔ Recruiting | Trial completion date: Jan 2025 ➔ Jan 2029 | Trial primary completion date: Jan 2025 ➔ Jan 2029

Enrollment open • Trial completion date • Trial primary completion date • Cushing’s Disease

The dual HDAC/PI3K inhibitor CUDC-907 inhibits the growth and proliferation of MYC-driven Group 3 medulloblastoma. (PubMed, Cell Death Discov) - "Furthermore, when CUDC-907 was combined with chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin, G0/G1 phase blocking effect was further enhanced. CUDC-907 in combination with radiotherapy (RT) inhibited DNA damage repair and increased DNA damage. These findings indicate that CUDC-907, either as a monotherapy or in combination with chemoradiotherapy, represents a promising therapeutic strategy for MYC amplified G3 MB, potentially influencing future clinical trials targeting this patient population."

Journal • Brain Cancer • Medulloblastoma • Oncology • Solid Tumor • CDKN1A • MYC

HIV Reactivation Potential Evaluated by RNA-Seq and DNA Methylation Following LRA Stimulation (CROI 2025) - "Purified CD4+ T cells were cultured in-vitro for 20h with two LRAs: fimepinostat (CUD) and Ingenol-3-angelate (PEP), left unstimulated (UNS) or cultured with PMA+ionomycin+IL2 as positive control (CTR)...Conclusions MultiOMIC analysis of CD4+ T cells upon LRA stimulation revealed molecular features associated with HIV inducibility. These features may shed light on mechanisms of latency reversal and could guide the selection of new and more effective LRAs."

Epigenetic controller • Human Immunodeficiency Virus • Infectious Disease • CD4 • IL2

Thienopyrimidine: A promising scaffold in the development of kinase inhibitors with anticancer activities. (PubMed, Bioorg Med Chem) - "Some of these thienopyrimidines as anticancer kinase inhibitors have already been marketed or are currently undergoing clinical/preclinical studies for the treatment of cancers, such as Olmutinib, Pictilisib, SNS-314, PF-03758309, and Fimepinostat, highlighting the substantial advantages of the thienopyrimidine scaffold in the discovery of anticancer agents. This article reviews the discovery, activity, and structure-activity relationships of antitumor kinase inhibitors based on the thienopyrimidine scaffold, and partially discusses the binding modes between thienopyrimidine derivatives and their kinase targets. By elucidating the application of thienopyrimidine derivatives as anticancer kinase inhibitors, this review aims to provide new perspectives for the development of more effective and novel kinase inhibitors."

Journal • Review • Oncology

Trial of CUDC-907 in Children and Young Adults with Relapsed or Refractory Solid Tumors, CNS Tumors, or Lymphoma (clinicaltrials.gov) - P1 | N=26 | Active, not recruiting | Sponsor: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute | Trial completion date: Jan 2025 ➔ Jun 2025 | Trial primary completion date: Jan 2025 ➔ Jun 2025

Trial completion date • Trial primary completion date • B Cell Lymphoma • Brain Cancer • CNS Tumor • Glioma • Hematological Malignancies • Lymphoma • Neuroblastoma • Oncology • Solid Tumor • MYC • MYCN

Synergistic antitumor effect of MK-1775 and CUDC-907 against prostate cancer. (PubMed, Invest New Drugs) - "Notably, the combination of MK-1775 and CUDC-907 leads to significant antitumor effects in vivo. Our findings provide a strong basis for a promising combination strategy against prostate cancer."

Journal • Genito-urinary Cancer • Oncology • Prostate Cancer • Solid Tumor • AR • RRM1

Advances in pharmacological treatment of Cushing's disease. (PubMed, Zhong Nan Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban) - "Currently, three categories of medications are commonly used: 1) Drugs targeting somatostatin and/or dopamine receptors to inhibit pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) synthesis (e.g., pasireotide, cabergoline); 2) drugs targeting adrenal cortex-related receptors to suppress steroid synthesis (e.g., ketoconazole, metyrapone, mitotane, and osilodrostat); 3) drugs acting on glucocorticoid receptors (e.g., mifepristone). Research on pharmacological treatments for Cushing's disease is ongoing, with new drugs such as seliciclib, CRN04894, fimepinostat, vorinostat, and SPI-62 currently in phase II clinical trial. The development of novel drugs holds promise for more precise and effective treatment for Cushing's disease patients."

Journal • Review • Cardiovascular • Cushing’s Disease • Endocrine Disorders

Identifying Novel Epigenetic Therapies for T-Cell Lymphomas By High Throughput Drug Screen (ASH 2024) - "Introduction : Epigenetic alterations are known to contribute to development of T-cell lymphomas (TCL), and numerous epigenetic modifiers have shown safety and clinical efficacy in TCL leading to FDA approval of three histone deacetylase inhibiters (vorinostat, romidepsin, and belinostat)...At the conclusion of this screen, we tested cytotoxicity of our most encouraging compound in combination with other top performing compounds.Results : We identified BI-847325, bortezomib, camptothecin, CUDC-907, and WAY-118959-A as the most encouraging cytotoxic compounds that are not currently being used clinically. We compared the top 5 compounds to 4 standard of care (SOC) cytotoxic drugs (belinostat, gemcitabine, romidepsin, and vincristine) that are used clinically...We tested cytotoxicity of camptothecin in combination with 5 compounds (belinostat, bortezomib, BI-847325, romidepsin, and vincristine) that also demonstrated cytotoxicity in the malignant T-cells with relative..."

Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma • Gene Therapies • Hematological Malignancies • Lymphoma • Oncology • T Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma • ANXA5

TRIM21-mediated ubiquitination and phosphorylation of ERK1/2 promotes cell proliferation and drug resistance in pituitary adenomas. (PubMed, Neuro Oncol) - "TRIM21 may represent a therapeutic target for tumors, and inhibiting TRIM21 could be a potential strategy for tumor treatment."

Journal • Oncology • Pituitary Gland Carcinoma • Targeted Protein Degradation • MAP2K1 • TRIM21

High throughput screening identified the activity of histone deacetylase inhibitors in patient-derived models of undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (EORTC-NCI-AACR 2024) - "Of four HDAC inhibitors with the lowest average IC50 values (romidepsin, 1.3 nM; CUDC-907, 6.5 nM; panobinostat, 15.6 nM; and quisinostat, 26.2 nM), quisinostat exhibited the most promising synergistic effects with doxorubicin in vitro. In vivo investigations into the anti-tumour response of patient-derived xenograft models of UPS to quisinostat, alone or in combination with doxorubicin, are ongoing. ConclusionQuisinostat demonstrates potent anti-tumour activity in patient-derived models of UPS in vitro, with an enhanced response when doxorubicin is added."

Clinical • Epigenetic controller • Oncology • Sarcoma • Solid Tumor • Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma

Classical Monocytes Shuttling for Precise Delivery of Nanotherapeutics to Glioblastoma. (PubMed, Adv Healthc Mater) - "Furthermore, the high delivery efficiency of CMs reduces the amount of CUDC-907 required for treatments, reducing the physiological toxicity and off-target effects caused by high doses. 907-NPs@CMs is a safe and versatile therapeutic system that provides a platform for targeted drug delivery to tumors and the ability to treat GBM through a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy."

Journal • Brain Cancer • CNS Tumor • Glioblastoma • Oncology • Solid Tumor

Transcriptomic heterogeneity of EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer evolution towards small cell lung cancer. (PubMed, Clin Cancer Res) - "Our study demonstrated most t-SCLC showed neuronal subtypes with low EGFR expression. DEGs analysis and t-SCLC preclinical models identified an epigenetic modifier as a promising treatment strategy for t-SCLC."

Heterogeneity • Journal • Lung Adenocarcinoma • Lung Cancer • Non Small Cell Lung Cancer • Oncology • Small Cell Lung Cancer • Solid Tumor • EGFR

Trial of CUDC-907 in Children and Young Adults With Relapsed or Refractory Solid Tumors, CNS Tumors, or Lymphoma (clinicaltrials.gov) - P1 | N=26 | Active, not recruiting | Sponsor: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute | Trial completion date: Jul 2024 ➔ Jan 2025 | Trial primary completion date: Jul 2024 ➔ Jan 2025

Trial completion date • Trial primary completion date • Brain Cancer • CNS Tumor • Glioma • Hematological Malignancies • Lymphoma • Neuroblastoma • Oncology • Solid Tumor • MYC • MYCN

NOVEL THERAPEUTICS TO PREVENT RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS DEVELOPMENT IN AT-RISK INDIVIDUALS, UNCOVERED BY IN SILICO DRUG REPURPOSING (EULAR 2024) - "In this network we identified a dual HDAC/PI3K kinase inhibitor (fimepinostat), an aurora kinase inhibitor (Hesperadine) and the flavonoid natural product quercetin, to represent potential drug candidates. Application of two independent in silico drug repurposing strategies, uncovered novel compounds that have the potential to counteract the synovial gene signature associated with RA development in RA-risk individuals. These findings provide the support for further in vitro testing of these compounds and may guide future clinical trials aimed at halting disease development in RA-risk individuals."

Clinical • Developmental Disorders • Immunology • Inflammation • Inflammatory Arthritis • Rheumatoid Arthritis • Rheumatology

Increasing the therapeutic vulnerability of heterogenous cell phenotypes within prostate cancer (AACR 2024) - "Tested compounds with differential sensitivity between aggressive and non-aggressive cells were those inhibiting histone deacetylase (vorinostat, fimepinostat, and pracinostat), proteasomes (bortezomib, delanzomib, ixazomib), topoisomerases (gimatecan and daunorubicin), and other compounds identified independently by us targeting nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (FK866) and DNA (bleomycin). Funding was provided by the University of Arizona Cancer Center (NCI-P30 CA23074 and NCI-R01 CA159406) and by the Partnership in Native American Cancer Prevention at the University of Arizona (U54CA143924) and Northern Arizona University (U54CA143925). Collaborators at NCATS were supported by the intramural research program."

Genito-urinary Cancer • Oncology • Prostate Cancer • Solid Tumor • CDH1 • CLDN4 • CLDN7 • KRT6A • ZEB1

Identifying the molecular mechanisms underlying progesterone receptor downregulation in endometrial cancer (AACR 2024) - "Single treatment with mitoxantrone, idarubicin, romidepsin , CUDC-907 , FLZ , and RocA achieved effective inhibition of EC cell proliferation and enhanced PR expression except FLZ and RocA. Co-treatment of CUDC-907 with Top2Ai increased PR expression and enhanced cell death in EC cell lines, indicating a potential treatment strategy. In vivo studies utilizing our EC-PDX models will further validate the efficacy of restoring PR expression and suppressing EC tumor growth. Further studies of the molecular mechanisms behind this strategy will be conducted."

Cervical Cancer • Colorectal Cancer • Endometrial Cancer • Gynecologic Cancers • Oncology • Solid Tumor • HDAC2 • PGR • TOP1 • TOP2A

Patient-derived model systems of endometrial cancers for disease modeling and drug sensitivity testing (AACR 2024) - "The drug screening results clearly highlighted several standout drugs, including CUDC-907 (a dual PI3K/HDAC inhibitor), two histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors including romidepsin and panobinostat, four topoisomerase II (TOP II) inhibitors including mitoxantrone, daunorubicin, doxorubicin, and epirubicin, two proteasome inhibitors including carfilzomib and bortezomib, 2 DNA-directed RNA synthesis inhibitor dactinomycin and plicamycin, omacetaxine mepesuccinate (protein synthesis inhibitor), and valrubicin (DNA synthesis inhibitor). Our unique PDXs and PDCs are excellent models for representing various characteristics of EC and testing novel therapeutics. This current study presents a promising direction for developing personalized therapy options for EC patients and provides a platform for further investigation of drug mechanisms and tumor development. Future studies will also involve etiology, such as chronic psychological stress, DNAm age and intratumoral microbiome."

Clinical • Colorectal Cancer • Endometrial Cancer • Gynecologic Cancers • Oncology • Solid Tumor

Trial of CUDC-907 in Children and Young Adults With Relapsed or Refractory Solid Tumors, CNS Tumors, or Lymphoma (clinicaltrials.gov) - P1 | N=26 | Active, not recruiting | Sponsor: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute | Trial completion date: Jan 2024 ➔ Jul 2024 | Trial primary completion date: Jan 2024 ➔ Jul 2024

Trial completion date • Trial primary completion date • Brain Cancer • CNS Tumor • Glioma • Hematological Malignancies • Lymphoma • Neuroblastoma • Oncology • Solid Tumor • MYC • MYCN

eEF1A2 promotes PTEN-GSK3β-SCF complex-dependent degradation of Aurora kinase A and is inactivated in breast cancer. (PubMed, Sci Signal) - "Reactivating this pathway using fimepinostat, which relieves inhibitory signaling directed at PTEN and increases FBXW7 expression, combined with inhibiting Aurora-A with alisertib, suppressed breast cancer cell proliferation in culture and tumor growth in vivo. The findings demonstrate a therapeutically exploitable, tumor-suppressive role for eEF1A2 in breast cancer."

Journal • Breast Cancer • Oncology • Solid Tumor • Targeted Protein Degradation • AURKA • CUL1 • EEF1A1 • FBXW7 • GSK3B • METTL3 • PTEN

Fimepinostat impairs NF-κB and PI3K/AKT signaling and enhances gemcitabine efficacy in H3K27M-mutated diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. (PubMed, Cancer Res) - "Combination therapy comprising gemcitabine and fimepinostat elicited synergistic anti-tumor effects in vitro and in orthotopic H3.3K27M DIPG xenograft models. Collectively, p53 activation using gemcitabine and suppression of RELB-mediated NF-κB activation and PI3K/AKT signaling using fimepinostat is a potential therapeutic strategy for treating H3.3K27M DIPG."

Journal • Brain Cancer • CNS Tumor • Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma • Glioma • Oncology • Pediatrics • Solid Tumor

Fimepinostat impairs NF­κB and PI3K/AKT signaling and enhances gemcitabine efficacy in H3K27M-mutated diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (Cancer Res) - "A drug screen in gemcitabine-treated DIPG cells revealed that fimepinostat, a dual inhibitor of HDAC and PI3K, effectively suppressed the gemcitabine-induced NF­κB signaling in addition to blocking PI3K/AKT activation. Combination therapy comprising gemcitabine and fimepinostat elicited synergistic anti-tumor effects in vitro and in orthotopic H3.3K27M DIPG xenograft models."

Preclinical • Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma

Synergistic effect of adavosertib and fimepinostat on acute myeloid leukemia cells by enhancing the induction of DNA damage. (PubMed, Invest New Drugs) - "Through the utilization of western blotting analyses, targeted inhibitors, and ectopic overexpression, we propose that the downregulation of Wee1, CHK1, RNR, and c-Myc are the potential mechanisms. Our data support the development of ADA in combination with CUDC-907 for the treatment of AML."

Journal • Acute Myelogenous Leukemia • Gene Therapies • Hematological Malignancies • Leukemia • Oncology • CHEK1 • MYC