"This is a shining example of how the public benefits from new knowledge generated at The University of Iowa."

--David Skorton, M.D.
President, University of Iowa

Lupus research conducted in UI medical laboratories leads to promising anti-cancer agent

Arthur Krieg, M.D., was earnestly researching the cause of lupus back in 1992 when he realized something was amiss.

After two years of study at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, he made a fascinating discovery with implications for the treatment of patients with cancer. Krieg found that a synthetic molecule he had created mimicked the behavior of a germ found only outside humans.

"If the germ enters the human body, the immune system fights the invader to eliminate the infection," Krieg explains. "By introducing the synthetic molecule that mimicked a germ into mice that had cancer, the mouse's body assumed the cancer was an infection, and fought the cancer."

Since the same principle may be useful for activating the body's immune system to fight chronic hepatitis C infection, his work has exciting potential for treating other diseases besides cancer.

Krieg's discovery, while an accident, was so promising he took leave from The University of Iowa and founded the Coley Pharmaceutical Group, a biopharmaceutical company where he is chief scientific officer.

While we have not discovered a cure for cancer, Krieg says, "simply transforming cancer into a chronic illness would be a major advance."

Since the promising anti-cancer agent, called CpG 7909, was conceived at UI, the University could eventually realize millions of dollars in licensing and royalty fees. In fact, UI President David Skorton, M.D., recently accepted a $9.2 million check from Coley, which by a license agreement is allowing Pfizer to develop the drug.

Pfizer will begin testing the drug, known commercially as PF-3512676, on lung cancer patients next year. If all goes well, PF-3512676 could be on the market in 2008.

Meanwhile, GlaxoSmith Kline has signed a license with Coley to develop vaccines for certain infectious diseases and cancers, and Sanofi-Aventis is developing molecules for asthma and other respiratory diseases.

George Weiner, M.D., director of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at UI, was one of the co-inventors of the licensed immunotherapy technology. He and his Holden colleagues have participated in developing CpG 7909 as a potential treatment.

"We are very excited that this research could lead to better treatments for many patients," Weiner says.

Anti-Cancer Team
Several members of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center resarch team contributed to the development of the promising anti-cancer agent, CpG 7909. Among them are George Weiner, M.D. (center, with vial), James Woolridge, M.D., and Bernd Jahrsdoerfer, M.D.