UI receives grant to develop new treatment for ovarian cancer

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

The University of Iowa has been selected as an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Sprint for Women's Health awardee to develop a new approach to combating ovarian cancer in women.

Jill Kolesar, dean and professor at the College of Pharmacy, will lead a research team that aims to leverage the production ofextracellular vesicles - small, fluid-filled sacs released by cells that carry proteins and other biologically important agents - to target and eliminate ovarian cancer cells. The approach, if successful, would be a major advancement to current ovarian cancer treatments, which target cancerous and healthy cells.

Jill Kolesar

"Ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, and there are few effective treatments," says Kolesar, the Jean M. Schmidt Chair in Drug Discovery at Iowa. "We have developed a new therapy that is effective and has few or no adverse effects. This grant supports the first clinical trial of this therapy and the next step in making it available to women who need it desperately."

Ovarian cancer is projected to kill more than 12,700 women in the United States this year, according to the American Cancer Society. There is currently no early detection for the disease. Moreover, two of three women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and undergo chemotherapy experience a recurrence.

ARPA-H sought solutions within six topics of interest in women's health and received an unprecedented response. The agency launched the Sprint for Women's Health in February.

Kolesar and her team will use the award to refine the production of the small, fluid-filled sacs (MEVs) to target macrophages, a type of white blood cell, in tumor clusters and "change them from cancer supporting to cancer fighting," according to the grant summary.

In addition, the researchers plan to ramp up production of MEVs that can be generated from any cell, have longer durability and stability, and enhanced abilities to target cancer.

Kolesar will conduct a clinical trial at UI's Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only cancer center in Iowa designated by the National Cancer Institute and of which she is a member.

Kolesar's team also seeks to establish the viability of MEVs in preventing ovarian cancer from recurring in mice that have the disease and to assess their toxicity. If successful, the researchers would then test the approach in humans.

"We anticipate the anticancer activity of MEVs, combined with localizing ability, will be able to eradicate small numbers of cancer cells and help the immune system eliminate them," the researchers wrote in the grant summary.

The award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,is for $10 million over two years. Iowa will receive $8.8 million, while researchers at the University of Kentucky will receive $1.2 million.