Ostentus Therapeutics, Inc.® (Ostentus Therapeutics) is a startup biotechnology company investigating the activity, efficacy, and safety of its novel natural compounds in the treatment of different types of solid tumors and leukemia.

Ostentus Therapeutics’ mission is to advance the study and development of its multicancer fighting natural compounds and demonstrate their superior efficacy and safety in humans, through rigorous pharmacological testing. Currently available options for cancer treatment involve surgical removal and
radiation treatment followed by systemic chemotherapy treatment. The primarily available chemotherapeutic agents are antimetabolites (e.g., methotrexate), DNA- interactive agents (e.g., cisplatin, doxorubicin), anti-tubulin agents (e.g., taxanes), hormones, molecular targeting agents and immunotherapeutics.

The major disadvantages of chemotherapy are early and long-term onset of drug resistance that can lead to cancer treatment refractoriness and recurrence, and toxicity due to off-targeted effect on healthy tissues and organ that can restrain the use of many anticancer drugs to younger individuals with no-comorbidities.

Unfortunately, cancer is a disease mainly prevalent in the aging population which often presents with co morbidities (“unfit” individuals) that preclude the use of most effective treatments. To overcome the problems of present therapy, the search for new promising anticancer agents with better efficacy, lesser side effects and lack of cross-resistance with currently available cancer therapeutics is highly needed.

Development of phytochemicals and derivatives from plants is a relatively untapped field with promising options to find novel therapeutics with high activity and low side effects for cancer patients. To this end, several naturally occurring phytochemicals have been shown to have significant antitumor potential and that can also be used in older and unfit individuals.

Ostentus Therapeutics has gained insights and intriguing preliminary data supporting the evidence that its first natural anti-cancer compound OST-01 and its derivatives have great activity against a multitude of cancers. These studies conducted initially in models of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are being expanded to assess efficacy and safety in colorectal, lung, kidney, breast and liver cancers.

Importantly, while the Ostentus Therapeutics compounds are novel and derived from previously unreported medicinal plants, it would not be the first time that a derivative from a plant is approved for different types of cancers. For centuries, plants have been regarded as having potent therapeutic powers and their use and efficacy in treating many human diseases can be found in ancient texts from China and India.

Plant extracts have several components that can be formulated as therapeutics for cancer and other human diseases. These components can target intracellular pathways and processes in cancer cells and result in cancer cell growth inhibition and apoptosis. The long history of oral use of these plants or their components in traditional medicine supports their therapeutic properties and the high potential for developing novel cancer treatments to be used alone or in a combination with other US FDA-approved drugs.