Kyn Nabs $49M to Target Metabolism and Beat Other Cancer Drug Combos
Summary
Cancer immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors, which unleash immune cells on tumors, have taken the oncology world by storm over the past few years.Kyn Therapeutics is designing drugs to block some of those escape routes, and today announced a $49 million Series A round from Atlas Venture and OrbiMed Advisors.(Editor’s note for clarification: The small molecule is designed to prevent other substances, not just kynurenine, from binding to the AHR receptor, to lower immune suppression.)There is, however, some debate in the scientific literature about how much kynurenine is involved in immune suppression, says Alex Muller, a professor at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in Wynnewood, PA, and an expert on the IDO pathway.That other mechanism—the depletion of an amino acid called tryptophan by IDO—is targeted, Muller says, by a drug being developed by NewLink Genetics (NASDAQ:NLNK) of Ames, IA.