Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SHPH), a US-based discovery and development stage specialty pharmaceutical company, announced on Wednesday that it has signed a research agreement with Georgetown University aimed at the assessment of the company's lead HDAC6 inhibitor candidate, SP-2-225, assessing the anti-tumour impact of the combination of SP-2-225 and radiation therapy (RT) in a syngeneic breast cancer model.

The pre-clinical work outlined in the research agreement with Georgetown will support the company's IND-enabling studies in 2023, with a goal to submit an investigational new drug application (IND) for the selective HDAC6 inhibitor and initiation of a Phase I clinical trial in 2024.

SP-2-225 is Shuttle Pharma's pre-clinical class IIb selective HDAC inhibitor under development for regulating the immune system after RT. The company said that with the introduction of check-point inhibitors, CAR-T therapies and personalised medicine in cancer, regulation of the immune response following RT is of significant clinical and commercial interest.

Under the agreement, the research efforts will be headed by Alejandro Villagra, PhD., an associate professor at Georgetown University and member of the Shuttle scientific advisory board.