As cancer remains a looming threat to global health, traditional cancer treatments face significant challenges, including drug resistance and severe side effects, highlighting the need for more precise therapeutic strategies.

In this interview with the 21st Century Business Herald, Professor Thomas Leung Yun-chung, Director of the University Research Facility in Life Sciences and Professor of the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology at PolyU, discusses his novel approach in combating cancer by starving cancer cells.

This strategy exploits the heightened nutritional demands of rapidly proliferating cancer cells, particularly their dependence on specific amino acids for metabolic energy. Professor Leung’s research team discovered that by depleting the amino acid arginine through the injection of arginine-degrading enzymes, cancer cell growth can be inhibited without harming normal cells, as the latter can synthesise arginine independently.

This innovative mechanism has led to the development of a drug, pegylated recombinant human arginase (BCT-100), which targets arginine-dependent cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia and melanoma. BCT-100 has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for clinical trials, marking a significant milestone for locally developed treatments in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, Professor Leung’s research extends beyond oncology. His team identified that metabolic diseases like obesity and fatty liver disease also exhibit arginine dependency. Consequently, they developed a long-acting formulation of recombinant human arginase, ABarginase, aimed at treating these metabolic disorders. Initial preclinical results indicate that ABarginase can effectively reduce body weight and reverse insulin resistance.

To expedite the translation of these scientific findings into practical applications, Professor Leung co-founded ABRAM, a biopharma company, and engaged in collaborations with established pharmaceutical firms. This entrepreneurial approach allows for deeper involvement in the research and development process, accelerating the delivery of innovative therapies to patients.

Professor Leung emphasises the urgency of tackling these health challenges, affirming the need to transform research breakthroughs into tangible medical solutions to benefit patients worldwide. His work focuses on developing drugs from innovative research, highlighting the potential for collaboration between Hong Kong and Guangdong in the biomedicine sector to enhance research and development capabilities.

Watch the interview here:

21st Century Business Herald