"We are pleased that twenty-two patients have beendosed with PNT2258 in our Phase I clinical trial in advanced solid tumorpatients to evaluate safety and tolerability, maximum tolerated dose,pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. PNT2258 is our first DNAioligonucleotide targeted against the anti-apoptotic bcl-2 oncogene andencapsulated in Marina's SMARTICLES technology," Charles L. Bisgaier, Ph.D.,President and CEO of ProNAi Therapeutics, said in press release. "This noveldelivery technology offers protection for the DNAi oligonucleotide duringsystemic administration with good circulation times and extrahepatic tumorexposure.
"DNAi are short single-strand unmodified oligonucleotidesdesigned to silence genes by interfering with DNA. The DNAi silencing approachis differentiated from that of RNAi, antisense or miRNA in that it targetsgenomic sequences within the non-coding region of DNA disruptingtranscription," Bisgaier continued. "The progress and delivery validation inthe clinic this past year on the novel DNAi-SMARTICLES formulation gives usconfidence to bring forward more first-in-class drug candidates alone or withpartners. ProNAi is now positioned to advance additional cancer therapies fromits pre-clinical leads targeting other oncogenes such as c-myc and k-ras whilealso exploring other disease targets in areas such as inflammation and geneticsdiseases."
SOURCE: Marina Biotech press release
