ST-502 / Sangamo Therap - LARVOL DELTA

High Prevalence of ST502 Carrying an OXA-24 Carbapenemase gene in Carbapenem-Nonsusceptible Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus Isolates in Romania. (PubMed, Microb Drug Resist) - " We collected 104 consecutive meropenem-nonsusceptible A. baumannii isolates from 104 patients (36% female, mean age [SD] of 63 [16] years) between May 2015 and August 2017 from a large tertiary center in Romania... All isolates were resistant to piperacillin/tazobactam, ceftazidime, and ciprofloxacin; 88.5% to gentamicin; and 90.4% to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole...In these isolates, tobramycin and colistin might be the remaining therapeutic options. Due to differences in gentamicin and tobramycin resistance in these isolates, surveillance data should not group gentamicin, tobramycin, and amikacin together as aminoglycosides."

Journal • Infectious Disease

Multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae: a retrospective study in Manaus, Brazil. (PubMed, Arch Microbiol) - "MLST analysis demonstrated a great diversity of STs among the strains, totaling 12 different STs (ST11, ST23, ST198, ST277, ST307, ST340, ST378, ST462, ST502, ST3991, ST3993 and ST5209). Three of these (ST11, ST23 and ST340) belong to CG258."

Journal • Retrospective data • Infectious Disease • Pneumonia

"$SGMO @ #ADPD21 (3/9-3/14) will be presenting poster for ST-502 #Parkinson's Disease reporting on-target human alphasynuclein #repression activity >99% ! $BIIB" (@_B_I_O_T_E_C_H_)

CNS Disorders • Movement Disorders • Parkinson's Disease

Genomic Medicine: Slowly Moving To All At Once (SeekingAlpha) - "Sangamo has partnered with Biogen, Novartis, Pfizer (PFE), and Takeda (TAK) to pursue up to 17 diseases using its gene regulation platform. The first of these to reach human clinical trials is likely to be ST-501 for Alzheimer’s disease, followed by ST-502 for Parkinson’s disease, based on guidance from both partners that they expect to file INDs in 2021 and 2022."

IND • New trial • Alzheimer's Disease • CNS Disorders • Parkinson's Disease

Population structure of KPC carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in a long-term acute-care rehabilitation facility: identification of a new lineage of clonal group 101, associated with local hyperendemicity. (PubMed, Microb Genom) - "All isolates were resistant to β-lactams, with the exception of ceftazidime/avibactam (97.4 % susceptible). The second most effective agent was fosfomycin, followed by colistin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, gentamicin and amikacin (92.1, 86.8, 60.5, 44.7 and 50 % of susceptibility, respectively). A large proportion of isolates (n=18/38, 47.4%) belonged to clonal group (CG) 101, and most of them (n=15) to a new sequence type (ST) designated as ST2502. All the CG101 isolates had a capsule locus type KL17...Analysing WGS data, we were able to ascertain the common origin of some isolates imported from other hospitals, and to track several clusters of in-LTACRF cross-transmissions. The results revealed that, in peculiar epidemiological settings such as LTACRF, new KPC-Kp clones different from those prevailing in acute-care hospitals and associated with uncommon resistance and virulence determinants can successfully emerge and disseminate."

Clinical • Journal • Infectious Disease • Pneumonia • Respiratory Diseases

Non-typeable Streptococcus pneumoniae infection in a medical center in Taiwan after wide use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. (PubMed, J Microbiol Immunol Infect) - "A gradual increase of NTP infection was found in northern Taiwan in the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine era. Non-typeable pneumococci can cause respiratory and ophthalmological mucosal infection. Invasive infection can occur in newborns or young infants. Most of the isolates remained susceptible to penicillin and ceftriaxone."

Journal • Infectious Disease • Ophthalmology • Pneumonia • Respiratory Diseases

Whole-Genome-Sequence-Based Characterization of Extensively Drug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Hospital Outbreak. (PubMed, mSphere) - "Genome analysis initially revealed two clones, one carrying bla on Tn2006 (ST-1305, ST-195, and ST-218) and another carrying bla on pMAL-1 (ST-502 and ST-2059, a new ST), with the latter having two subclones, as revealed using the Bayesian transmission network...A pMAL-2 plasmid was circulating between the two clones. The approaches implemented in this study and the obtained findings facilitate the tracking of outbreak scenarios in Lebanon and the region at large."

Clinical • Journal • Infectious Disease

Pre-clinical studies of EC2629, a highly potent folate- receptor-targeted DNA crosslinking agent. (PubMed, Sci Rep) - "Folate receptor (FR)-targeted small molecule drug conjugates (SMDCs) have shown promising results in early stage clinical trials with microtubule destabilizing agents, such as vintafolide and EC1456...Complete responses were also observed against FR-positive paclitaxel (KB-PR) and cisplatin (KB-CR) resistant models. When evaluated against FR-positive patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of ovarian (ST070), endometrial (ST040) and triple negative breast cancers (ST502, ST738), EC2629 showed significantly greater anti-tumor activity compared to their corresponding standard of care treatments. Taken together, these studies thus demonstrated that EC2629, with its distinct DNA reacting mechanism, may be useful in treating FR-positive tumors, including those that are classified as drug resistant."

Journal • Breast Cancer • Oncology • Solid Tumor • Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Molecular characterization of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae belonging to CC258 isolated from outpatients with urinary tract infection in Brazil. (PubMed, J Glob Antimicrob Resist) - "These results raise a concern about epidemiological surveillance related to colonization of patients discharged from hospitals in order to prevent both occurrence and spread of resistant bacterial infections in the community."

Clinical • Journal • Infectious Disease • Nephrology • Pneumonia • Respiratory Diseases

Biogen puts down massive $350M upfront for Sangamo preclinical assets (FierceBiotech) - "Shares shot up 40% after-hours on the news to $9.31 a share...Biogen will collaborate with Sangamo on a new gene regulation therapy approach, working at the DNA level, with the potential to treat challenging neurological diseases of global significance....Now, it’s boosting its AD and CNS pipeline further, paying a staggering $350 million upfront for a series of Sangamo’s preclinical assets with a $2.37 billion biobucks stream attached."

Licensing / partnership • Stock price

Biogen and Sangamo announce global collaboration to develop gene regulation therapies for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, neuromuscular, and other neurological diseases (Biogen Press Release) - "Biogen Inc....today announced that they have executed a global licensing collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize ST-501 for tauopathies including Alzheimer’s disease, ST-502 for synucleinopathies including Parkinson’s disease, a third undisclosed neuromuscular disease target, and up to nine additional undisclosed neurological disease targets."

Licensing / partnership