Tiziana acquires nano-particle formulation of a drug that may help in the fight against forms of leukaemia and the coronavirus

Tiziana Life Sciences PLC (LON:TILS) (NASDAQ:TLSA) said it has acquired the slow release version of an antibiotic drug used to treat cancer and which could be deployed in the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19). The nano-particle formulation Actinomycin D, or Act, was developed by Dr Kunwar Shailubhai, the company’s chief executive, during his time at Rasna Therapeutics. Tiziana is handing over to Rasna an initial US$120,000 and will make additional milestone payments of up to US$630,000. Act D has been around for more than half a century and was initially approved for infectious diseases in the US. That was until it was shown to have anti-cancer properties - after that, it was then used to treat certain solid tumours. Later research has suggested Act D may have a role to play in people with a mutated gene suffering acute myeloid leukaemia. It is also suggested that as a “potent inhibitor” of RNA synthesis, it could also have the potential to help COVID-19 patients. However, there is a catch. The drug as it is currently administered intravenously has severe toxicities, possibly due to the concentration of the drug in the blood during the first two hours after administration. Early studies of the nano-particle formulation of Act D suggest the slow-release mechanism may allow the maximum level of the drug in the blood – known as Cmax –  to be “pre-adjusted to the desired level”.