Anti-VPAC

Fighting chemotherapy side effects

Thrombocytopenia, which is the reduced number of platelets in blood, is a common severe side-effect of chemotherapy in cancer patients and increases the risk of bleeding and severity of hemorrhage, therefore causing the delay or even discontinuation of treatment in these patients. There is a high medical need to find a therapeutic that could reduce thrombocytopenia by accelerating platelet production. Blood platelet transfusion, the current standard of care for this condition, offers only a temporary solution for these patients and is associated with significant cost and risk.

Researchers at the University of Leuven and ThromboGenics have developed a novel therapeutic approach, showing that the inhibition of VPAC could stimulate the production of platelets. ThromboGenics has now identified and selected a lead antibody against VPAC to enter preclinical development. VPAC is a receptor present at the surface of bone marrow cells called megakaryocytes, which, when mature, produce platelets. Research published in the official journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH )* describes how the inhibition of VPAC could promote megakaryocyte differentiation.