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If you are like me, you love your pets deeply.
I am a longtime dog lover. At one point in time, I owned several Irish Wolfhounds, who were a big part of my family's life. So you can imagine the feeling of deep loss we had when on the way home from a vacation we received a call from our friend who was watching the house -
"Ammadon has broken his leg!"
Rushing home, we found our oldest male had quickly taken a turn for the worse. He was running a fever, and his left leg was swollen and at a disturbing angle. Several hours later, we learned not only that he had osteosarcoma, but it had metastasized into his lungs and other organs. The doctor did not give much hope. The treatments were harsh, difficult, and expensive. Ammadon had to be put to sleep not long after the discovery of the cancer.
Sadly, it is estimated that around 10,000 dogs are diagnosed annually with osteosarcoma. The true number of cases is likely higher, since dogs may be put down before diagnosis is established. While it can happen to any dog, it especially impacts large to giant breed dogs. The cause of death for most dogs that undergo amputation is the cancer metastasizing to other parts of the body. Even with the current treatment regime of amputation plus radiation and chemotherapy, few make it to the 2 year mark. Average 2 year survival rate is less than 5% post diagnosis. All of the treatments are very expensive and tend to be painful and/or toxic.
Allow me to back up and better introduce myself. My name is Ben Pyles. I grew up on a working farm in rural Vermont. Our family also bred Irish Wolfhounds, as well as raising various heritage breeds for livestock. Our dogs were part of the daily fabric of our lives.
Over the years, I have earned a masters in Molecular Biology, a MEd,, and an MBA. I have also been fortunate enough to be part of some truly groundbreaking science over the years.
Fast forward to today: I am now working in a research laboratory with one of the pioneers of immune system modulation, Dr. Heike Wulff. It has been found that one of the drugs she had synthesized a long time ago, called PAP1, looks to be effective at killing osteosarcoma cancer cells- while not harming the rest of the body. Studies have shown that osteosarcoma cells over-express a cell membrane protein called Kv1.3 compared to normal cells - and that PAP1 specifically blocks Kv1.3. Blocking enough Kv1.3 causes a cascade that reactivates a cell’s natural process of apoptosis. Apoptosis is the “biologically programmed death” process of cells that occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism’s growth or development. It is an important way the body rids itself of cancer cells when they arise.
But is the drug safe? Well, toxicity studies for Pap-1 have been done in rodents, pigs, macaque monkeys and even humans (topically). The various studies showed low patient toxicity. Very high sustained doses were used and tolerated, with almost no adverse effects reported.
This treatment has so much promise. But it has never been studied in dogs. I began to wonder if this would be effective in battling canine osteosarcomas... there are papers that say the target is present in this cancer and going after it is effective in killing the cancer cells.
Can you imagine a drug that can be injected or given orally, that has high tumor toxicity but minimally affects the patient even at high doses? A drug that could be given and dosed across the whole body, allowing the drug to find and interact with all the metastasis or bone cancer present? Can you imagine a small biotech company that would want to develop this drug and produce it for a reasonable price such that most dog owners could give it a try rather than just sadly saying good bye to their companions?
The good news is we can quickly begin to find out. We can try our drug PAP1 on cultured osteosarcoma cells from dogs and see if they die much like the human and mouse cell lines did when exposed to PAP1. PAP1 has had many years of research backing it, and has been shown to be very safe in other species. Once we show PAP1 works at stopping the cancer cells in a petri dish, we will show that PAP1 is safe for the dogs we wish to treat. We have plans to work with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine to test our drug on dogs with the ailment.
However, we have to walk before we run, so we need to show that it works in vitro.
That is where you all can come in.
It is hard to get research money through traditional routes for pet applications. This isn’t a normal thing for agencies like the National Institute of Health or National Science Foundation. Also, it has neither the glamour of human drug development, nor the promise of outlandish payouts, the large established pharmaceutical corporations aren't interested in pursuing something like this. They ask “Is this a billion dollar drug”- and I have no respond “no”. But it is a worthy thing to do none the less. My team and I feel saving our four legged friends is a worthy goal and really want to try. After all- we'll never know if this could work if no one tries… and all the current information available says it should work. Will you help us?
I am a longtime dog lover. At one point in time, I owned several Irish Wolfhounds, who were a big part of my family's life. So you can imagine the feeling of deep loss we had when on the way home from a vacation we received a call from our friend who was watching the house -
"Ammadon has broken his leg!"
Rushing home, we found our oldest male had quickly taken a turn for the worse. He was running a fever, and his left leg was swollen and at a disturbing angle. Several hours later, we learned not only that he had osteosarcoma, but it had metastasized into his lungs and other organs. The doctor did not give much hope. The treatments were harsh, difficult, and expensive. Ammadon had to be put to sleep not long after the discovery of the cancer.
Sadly, it is estimated that around 10,000 dogs are diagnosed annually with osteosarcoma. The true number of cases is likely higher, since dogs may be put down before diagnosis is established. While it can happen to any dog, it especially impacts large to giant breed dogs. The cause of death for most dogs that undergo amputation is the cancer metastasizing to other parts of the body. Even with the current treatment regime of amputation plus radiation and chemotherapy, few make it to the 2 year mark. Average 2 year survival rate is less than 5% post diagnosis. All of the treatments are very expensive and tend to be painful and/or toxic.
Allow me to back up and better introduce myself. My name is Ben Pyles. I grew up on a working farm in rural Vermont. Our family also bred Irish Wolfhounds, as well as raising various heritage breeds for livestock. Our dogs were part of the daily fabric of our lives.
Over the years, I have earned a masters in Molecular Biology, a MEd,, and an MBA. I have also been fortunate enough to be part of some truly groundbreaking science over the years.
Fast forward to today: I am now working in a research laboratory with one of the pioneers of immune system modulation, Dr. Heike Wulff. It has been found that one of the drugs she had synthesized a long time ago, called PAP1, looks to be effective at killing osteosarcoma cancer cells- while not harming the rest of the body. Studies have shown that osteosarcoma cells over-express a cell membrane protein called Kv1.3 compared to normal cells - and that PAP1 specifically blocks Kv1.3. Blocking enough Kv1.3 causes a cascade that reactivates a cell’s natural process of apoptosis. Apoptosis is the “biologically programmed death” process of cells that occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism’s growth or development. It is an important way the body rids itself of cancer cells when they arise.
But is the drug safe? Well, toxicity studies for Pap-1 have been done in rodents, pigs, macaque monkeys and even humans (topically). The various studies showed low patient toxicity. Very high sustained doses were used and tolerated, with almost no adverse effects reported.
This treatment has so much promise. But it has never been studied in dogs. I began to wonder if this would be effective in battling canine osteosarcomas... there are papers that say the target is present in this cancer and going after it is effective in killing the cancer cells.
Can you imagine a drug that can be injected or given orally, that has high tumor toxicity but minimally affects the patient even at high doses? A drug that could be given and dosed across the whole body, allowing the drug to find and interact with all the metastasis or bone cancer present? Can you imagine a small biotech company that would want to develop this drug and produce it for a reasonable price such that most dog owners could give it a try rather than just sadly saying good bye to their companions?
The good news is we can quickly begin to find out. We can try our drug PAP1 on cultured osteosarcoma cells from dogs and see if they die much like the human and mouse cell lines did when exposed to PAP1. PAP1 has had many years of research backing it, and has been shown to be very safe in other species. Once we show PAP1 works at stopping the cancer cells in a petri dish, we will show that PAP1 is safe for the dogs we wish to treat. We have plans to work with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine to test our drug on dogs with the ailment.
However, we have to walk before we run, so we need to show that it works in vitro.
That is where you all can come in.
It is hard to get research money through traditional routes for pet applications. This isn’t a normal thing for agencies like the National Institute of Health or National Science Foundation. Also, it has neither the glamour of human drug development, nor the promise of outlandish payouts, the large established pharmaceutical corporations aren't interested in pursuing something like this. They ask “Is this a billion dollar drug”- and I have no respond “no”. But it is a worthy thing to do none the less. My team and I feel saving our four legged friends is a worthy goal and really want to try. After all- we'll never know if this could work if no one tries… and all the current information available says it should work. Will you help us?