Regen BioPharma Inc. has identified a series of small molecule drugs that inhibit NR2F6. Regen’s screening process demonstrated that its recently identified novel chemical compounds appear to inhibit NR2F6 and show potential for treating autoimmune diseases such as Lupus. 

The NR2F6 nuclear receptor has been identified as a potentially very important immune cell inhibitor (an immune checkpoint) which may be important in developing therapies for treating autoimmune diseases like Lupus. Therapies that manipulate NR2F6 show potential to act as a cancer stem cell differentiators, potentially transforming cancer stem cells into normal cells.

The NR2F6 program at Regen aims to identify antagonists of NR2F6 in an effort to unleash the cancer-killing potential of a patient’s own immune system as well as identifying agonists which should suppress the immune system in diseases where the immune system is over-activated, such as autoimmunity.

“We have identified a handful of compounds representing three different structural classes that inhibit NR2F6 in our primary screening assay,” says Harry Lander, Ph.D., MBA, president and chief scientific officer of Regen. “They exhibited a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on NR2F6 without cytotoxicity. Our next steps will focus on determining what effect they have on human immune cells.”

David Koos, Ph.D., chairman & chief executive officer of Regen BioPharma Inc. said, “This is exciting for Regen to reach this point in its goal for developing therapies that treat autoimmune diseases. These compounds recently identified should provided us the basis to further refine our screening for successful antagonists in the development of immunologically based cancer therapies.”