Company Name: PYC Therapeutics
Announcement Date: 30/06/2016
Announcement Category: Product launch/update
Announcement Content:
Cell-penetrating Phylomers improve delivery of oligonucleotide drugs inside cells
Oligonucleotide drugs are new-generation therapies to treat genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy. A key challenge with these drugs is to optimise their delivery into cells to make treatments much more effective.
• Independent pilot studies show that a Phylogica cell-penetrating Phylomer (CPP) can improve the delivery of an antisense oligonucleotide drug inside human cells
• The cell-penetrating Phylomer was also shown to improve the efficiency of oligonucleotide delivery in a mouse model using two different delivery routes
• Study confirms Phylogica’s cell penetrating Phylomers can deliver a broad range of cargoes inside cells
• Collaboration will be expanded to focus on improving the effectiveness of oligonucleotide therapies for genetic diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy with results expected in the second half of 2016.
Perth, Australia, 15th June 2016: In February, 2016, Phylogica (ASX: PYC) initiated a collaboration with Professors Sue Fletcher and Stephen Wilton from the Centre for Comparative Genomics at Murdoch University to assess whether a cell penetrating Phylomer (CPP) could improve the delivery of an antisense oligonucleotide drug inside cells. This effort is aligned to our strategy of engaging in external collaborations to provide independent validation that our technology can expand the druggable landscape.
Phylogica is pleased to announce a successful outcome to these studies, which confirmed the CPP significantly enhanced intracellular delivery of the drug relative to a control oligonucleotide that was not linked to the CPP. Similar outcomes were achieved when the drug was delivered into cultured human cells and and also using a mouse animal model.
Antisense oligonucleotides work by binding to the genetic message (mRNA) and editing mutated regions that cause disease. Such drugs are showing great promise as therapies to reduce the severity of genetic diseases.
Professor Sue Fletcher said, “We’re really encouraged by these pilot studies and will expand our collaboration to focus on developing more effective treatments for Duchene muscular dystrophy (DMD).”
Phylogica’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Paul Watt, commented, “We are delighted to be working with the team at Murdoch University, which has pioneered the use of antisense oligonucleotide technologies to treat mutations that cause Duchenne muscular dystrophy. These efforts by the team at Murdoch University have led to clinical trials that are currently ongoing.”
Phylogica’s CEO, Dr Richard Hopkins said, “This study further validates our cell-penetrating Phylomers for their ability to deliver different therapeutic cargoes inside cells more safely and with greater efficiencies. We’ve now shown we can deliver a whole new class of drug that has the potential to open up commercial opportunities in the oligonucleotide field, which has seen a significant resurgence over recent years.”
Based on the successful outcome to the pilot studies, this collaboration is being expanded to focus on development of more effective treatments for DMD. These studies will target the genetic mutations underlying DMD in cell and animal models of disease.
A further study aim is to determine whether Phylogica’s delivery technology can improve drug activity without compromising drug safety – a challenge the previous generation of cell-penetrating peptides failed to overcome.
Phylogica looks forward to reporting on the outcome of these studies in the second half of 2016.
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For further information, please contact:
Dr Richard Hopkins
Tel: +61 8 9489 7855
Email: [email protected]
Dean Felton
Monsoon Communications
Tel: +61 3 9620 3333
Mob: +61 (0) 411 698 499
Email: [email protected]
Announcement URL: http://phylogica.com/media/articles/Investors---ASX-Announcements/20160615-Cell-Penetrating-Phylomers-Improve-Delivery-of-Drugs-1547/1563142.pdf
About PYC Therapeutics:
Phylogica is a leading peptide drug discovery company that utilises proprietary Phylomer peptide libraries and screening methodologies to identify unique peptide drug candidates for its pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners.
Go to Company Profile for: PYC Therapeutics
Announcement Contact: [email protected]
