Agios Pharmaceuticals presents data on cancer-associated IDH1 mutations at 101st AACR meeting

Agios Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the field of cancer metabolism, today announced multiple presentations at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 101^st Annual Meeting that highlight cancer metabolism as an approach to identify new ways to treat cancer, opening the potential for a new class of cancer drugs targeting metabolic enzymes.

“Cancer-associated metabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate accumulates in AML with IDH1/2 mutations”

In a poster session Sunday, April 18, "Cancer-associated IDH1 mutations produce 2-hydroxyglutarate," Agios scientists demonstrated that the mutated IDH1 gene has a novel gain of function enzyme activity consistent with a cancer-causing gene, or oncogene. This breakthrough discovery shows that the mutated form of IDH1 produces a metabolite, 2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG), which may contribute to the formation and onco-malignant progression of gliomas, the most common type of brain cancers. Authored by Agios scientist Lenny Dang, Ph.D., this poster was also awarded special recognition by the 2010 AACR Program Committee as a particularly meritorious abstract, scoring within the top 2-3% of abstracts presented, identifying it as an abstract with "the best science" in its respective poster session.

The second presentation, authored by Agios researcher Stefan Gross, Ph.D., and presented in a poster session Wednesday, April 21, "Cancer-associated metabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate accumulates in AML with IDH1/2 mutations," demonstrated that IDH1/2 mutations confer a similar enzymatic gain of function that dramatically increases 2HG in AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia).

Finally, Agios researcher Valeria Fantin, Ph.D., gave an oral presentation "Cancer-associated mutations in IDH1 and IDH2 produce 2HG," on Monday, April 19, discussing the results of this research, which were the basis of a Nature publication in November 2009.

Source Agios Pharmaceuticals