We live not in an age of walls but of gates.
Ever since the “Watergate” break-in over 50 years ago, the ‘flood-gates’ opened and the one-size-fits-all, overused suffix “-gate”, which is now metonymous with scandal, attached itself to all manner of coverups, controversies, contretemps, and kerfuffles, both big and small (sometimes very small).
Past and present incidents deemed to be gate-worthy for better or for worse include #Kategate involving doctored photographs and the missing whereabouts of Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, which we have written about here, #Deflategate and #Spygate with the New England Patriots, which we have also written about here, #Slapgate with Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars, #Bridgegate with ex- New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, #Nipplegate with Janet Jackson, #Kabulgate involving the retreat from Afghanistan and the death of American servicemen, #Donutgate with singer Ariana Grande who in 2015 was caught on camera licking a tray of pastries she hadn’t paid for (yuck!), and even Bill Gates, who is only added because of his last name.
Wikipedia’s list of -gates has close to 300 entries.
When Ronald Reagan gave his famous “Tear Down This Wall” speech in Berlin on June 12, 1987, he might have said, but fortunately didn’t, “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Gate!” since he was standing right in front of one – the Brandenburg Gate.
In tumors, which is our primary interest, the cytokine, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) acts as a gate to keep out the immune system, which greatly benefits cancer cells.
EpicentRx lead therapy, AdAPT-001, currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial, carries and expresses a TGF-β trap that eliminates this immunosuppressive cytokine, and, hopefully, as a result, makes tumors more receptive to treatment.
Channeling our best Ronald Reagan, we call on AdAPT-001 to continue to relentlessly tear down this…TGF-β gate.