AACR 2024 Drug Discovery Session Preview
AACR 2024 Drug Discovery Session Preview
What is AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) 2024?
AACR stands for American Association for Cancer Research, the largest cancer society in existence. It showcases the latest research in cancer (basic, translational, clinical, and prevention), including academic discussions on early detection, prevention, and survival of cancer disease. This year, the annual meeting of the AACR will be held in San Diego, USA, from April 5-10, local time, under the name AACR 2024.
Summary of drug discovery sessions to be presented at AACR 2024
In this post, we'd like to take a look at some of the Drug Discovery Sessions that will be taking place at AACR 2024. AACR 2024 drug discovery sessions include the following
- Advances in Diagnostics and Therapeutics (ADT): Sessions on the latest advances in diagnostics and therapeutics
- Advances in Technologies (AT): Sessions on emerging technologies, including cancer research methodologies, experimental techniques, data analytics, etc.
- DDT (New Drugs on the Horizon): content related to the development of new drugs
- Advances in Organ Site Research (AOS): sessions on specific cancer types or treatments
- You can explore AACR sessions in more detail by topic and format on the homepage below.
AACR Annual Meeting 2024 Itinerary Planner | Home (abstractsonline.com
AACR 2024 l About the New Drugs on the horizon Session
AACR 2024 will be hosting a New Drugs on the Horizon session, organized by the Chemistry in Cancer Research (CICR) group. Each year, new small molecule compounds and biopharmaceutical structures that have recently entered Phase I clinical trials, or are expected to do so in the near future, are presented.
At AACR 2023 last year, two payload structures for ADCs were presented, and a variety of structures, experimental data, and clinical development plans were presented, ranging from best-in-class drugs such as KRAS and MDM2 to first-in-class drugs such as PPARG inverse agonists.
AACR 2024 l New Drug Disclosures
This year, sessions at AACR 2024 New drugs on the horizon were also open to the public, and we'll start with ORIC-944. Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) is the only known enzyme in mammals that methylates histone H3K27. This promotes chromatin condensation, making PRC2 a key epigenetic factor that represses transcription. Dysfunction of PRC2 has been found in a number of cancer species.
ORIC-944 is an allosteric inhibitor of PRC2 and is specific by binding to the PRC2 EED subunit.
Existing drugs inhibit the activity of PRC2/EZH2 itself, which affects the expression of many genes, sometimes with severe side effects.
ORIC-944, however, targets the EED subunit and prevents it from recognizing H3K27me3. The significance is that it fundamentally overcomes the limitations of EZH2 in that it interferes with the binding and stabilization of PRC2 subunits.
The indication is prostate cancer, and preclinical studies have shown synergistic effects in combination with other AR (Androgen Receptor) inhibitors.In addition, a total of 12 substances were disclosed: 1 PROTAC, 2 biologics, and 9 synthetic new drugs.
| ID | Name | Drug type | Target protein | Indication | Company |
| ND01 | ABBV-303 | Antibody | Antigen (c-Met, CD8) | Tumors | AbbVie Inc |
| ND02 | BMS-986365 | small molecule (degrader) | Androgen Receptor | Prostate cancer | Bristol Myers Squibb |
| ND03 | RMC-9805 | small molecule | KRAS G12D | Cancer | Revolution Medicines |
| ND04 | ORIC-944 | small molecule | PRC2 | Prostate cancer | Mirati Therapeutics, ORIC Pharmaceuticals |
| ND05 | ARV-393 | PROTAC | BCL6 | Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma | Arvinas |
| ND06 | AZD8421 | small molecule | CDK2 | Breast cancer | AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP |
| ND07 | BBO-8520 | small molecule | KRAS G12C | Cancer | BridgeBio Pharma |
| ND08 | M3554 | Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) | GD2 | Neuroblastoma | Merck KGaA |
| ND09 | BAY 3563254 | small molecule (radiotherapy) | Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) | mCRPC | Bayer |
| ND10 | NST-628 | small molecule (molecular glue) | A/B/CRAF-MEK complex | Cancer | Nested Therapeutics |
| ND11 | VVD-214 | small molecule | WRN helicase | Cancer | Vividion Therapeutics |
| ND12 | PF-07220060 | small molecule | CDK4 | Cancer | Pfizer |
AACR 2023 l New protein discovery
In addition to the above new drug structures, AACR also unveils new proteins discovered by researchers. At AACR 2023, a total of 37 new target proteins were unveiled in the immuno-oncology field alone. What new proteins will be unveiled at AACR 2024?
| New target proteins | Quantity disclosed |
| Immune mediator | 1 |
| Tumor antigen | 2 |
| Gene expression control | 8 |
| Metabolic | 8 |
| Cell signaling | 5 |
| Cell death | 4 |
| lncRNA | 4 |
| Cell cycle | 2 |
| DNA damage response | 2개 |
| Cell adhesion | 1개 |
References: National Center for Drug Discovery.
Concluding the AACR 2024 Drug Discovery Session Preview
This is a brief summary of the sessions related to drug discovery at AACR 2024. HITS will also be exhibiting at AACR 2024, where we'll be showcasing Hyper Lab, our AI drug discovery platform that uses AI to create the medicines the world needs faster. We look forward to seeing you at booth #2602. In addition to ORIC-944, we have more compounds coming soon, and we'll be sharing more information about them in our AACR coverage in late April.