Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, is a class of double-stranded RNA molecules, 20-25 nucleotides in length, that play a variety of roles in biology. Most notably, siRNA is involved in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, where it interferes with the expression of a specific gene. In addition to their role in the RNAi pathway, siRNAs also act in RNAi-related pathways, e.g., as an antiviral mechanism or in shaping the chromatin structure of a genome; the complexity of these pathways is only now being elucidated.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) an $11.5 million, five-year SPORE grant to focus on cancers of the kidney. Michael Atkins, MD, Deputy Director of BIDMC's Division of Hematology/Oncology, will oversee the grant, which involves collaborations with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital via the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, and Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), the world’s leading developer of medical devices, announced today the presentation of new pre-clinical research findings from their Huntington’s disease program at the 2009 World Congress on Huntington’s Disease held September 12-15, 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
ZaBeCor Pharmaceuticals ("ZaBeCor" or the "Company") announced today the initiation of a Phase II clinical trial for its asthma drug candidate Excellair™, following the successful results of the Company's Phase I clinical trials. ZaBeCor is one of the first companies to deliver siRNA to the lung and one of the first to target asthma with siRNA.
Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISIS) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY) announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has allowed an Isis patent application that further expands the scope of the "Crooke" patent estate. The newly allowed patent broadly covers methods of cleaving a target RNA via a double-stranded ribonuclease mechanism, including the RNAi mechanism, with chemically modified, single-stranded RNA-containing drugs.
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a new way to deliver drugs into cancer cells by exposing them briefly to a non-harmful laser. Their results are published in a recent article in ACS Nano, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued a notification of intent to grant for a patent in the Kreutzer-Limmer III patent series (EP Application No 02702247.4). This patent series stems from the pioneering RNAi research performed by scientists at Ribopharma AG, which was acquired by Alnylam in 2003.
National Cancer Institute (NCI) has renewed a $11.5 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer, which supports multidisciplinary research at Fox Chase Cancer Center and the University of Pennsylvania. First approved in 1999, this marks the third five-year term for the Fox Chase-Penn Ovarian SPORE.
Small interfering RNA (siRNA), a type of genetic material, can block potentially harmful activity in cells, such as tumor cell growth. But delivering siRNA successfully to specific cells without adversely affecting other cells has been challenging.
Recently, the potential of PPAR-γ as a target for the prevention and treatment of cancer has been widely studied. However, the potential therapeutic role of PPAR-γ agonists has been questioned, based on contradictory results. Studies using animal models of colon cancer found that PPAR-γ agonists increased the development of colon tumors.
Despite recent advances in diagnosis and treatment, the prognosis of patients with biliary tract cancer is still poor. Elucidating the biological characteristics of these carcinomas has become necessary to improve the prognosis of patients and to devise better treatment strategies. A recent study report that invasive front dominant expression of LNγ2 and LNβ3 and active MMP7 play a key role in the progression of biliary tract cancer.
Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY), the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, announces today that it has entered into a research-based collaboration with Santaris Pharma A/S, a leading player in RNA-based therapeutics, to develop its proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology in a range of rare diseases, thereby enabling Shire to build on its already strong competitive position for its Human Genetic Therapies (HGT) business.
PCI Biotech Holding ASA, the Norwegian drug delivery company focusing on effective delivery of cancer therapeutics, today announced that the first patient has received treatment in the Phase I/II trial with the lead candidate Amphinex(R), which uses a new approach called photochemical internalisation.
Santaris Pharma A/S, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing RNA-based drugs targeted to disease-related mRNAs and microRNAs, today announced a multi-year worldwide strategic alliance with Shire plc to discover and develop new RNA-based medicines to treat rare genetic disorders.
In a feat of trickery, Dartmouth Medical School immunologists have devised a Trojan horse to help overcome ovarian cancer, unleashing a surprise killer in the surroundings of a hard-to-treat tumor.
A new therapy to treat cancer has been developed by Australian scientists and it promises to have far fewer unpleasant side effects than conventional treatments and should also be much cheaper.
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered two biochemical pathways that the Ebola virus relies on to infect cells.
Intradigm Corporation has announced the issuance of United States patent 7,534,878, titled "Composition and Methods of RNAi Therapeutics for Treatment of Cancer and Other Neovascularization Diseases."
In technology that promises to one day allow drug delivery to be tailored to an individual patient and a particular cancer tumor, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have developed an efficient system for delivering siRNA into primary cells.
Molecules that selectively interfere with protein production can stop human cells from making the abnormal molecules that cause Huntington's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
Molecules that selectively interfere with protein production can stop human cells from making the abnormal molecules that cause Huntington's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
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