Advertisement
The new consortium, formed by Syncom, Synvolux Therapeutics, andUniversity Medical Center Groningen, focuses on designing a versatile drugdelivery system for inflammatory diseases and cancer. Another new consortiumis formed by InteRNA Technologies, Utrecht University and VU UniversityMedical Center, and focuses on the development of anti-angiogenicmicroRNA-based therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer.
Advertisement
Versatile drug delivery platform for inflammatory diseases and cancer
New molecular entities (NMEs) in the drug development pipeline comprisevarious classes of kinase inhibitors that cause unacceptable toxicity inhumans. Proper formulation might circumvent side effects and improve theirgeneral therapeutic efficacy. However, currently, no appropriate formulationtechnology is available for these kinase inhibitors.
This project focuses on a systematic approach in which chemicalmodification of NMEs is combined with drug formulation studies. This willlead to a versatile drug delivery platform for future clinical application ofkinase inhibitors in the treatment of cancer and chronic inflammatorydiseases. "This approach is expected to make targeted drug delivery finallymeet its expectations, as it will become available for a variety of drugclasses that are under development in the pharmaceutical industry," accordingto the consortium members.
Development of novel anti-angiogenic miRNA based therapeutics
"Conventional cancer treatment such as surgery, radiation therapy andchemotherapy are far from sufficient, therefore, new strategies of cancertreatment are needed more than ever," says Roel Schaapveld, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, InteRNA. There is a large body of evidence indicating that tumorgrowth and metastasis formation are dependent on the formation of new bloodvessels. Furthermore, angiogenesis is an early event in the development oftumors, being already switched on in pre-cancerous events and long beforevisible or clinically relevant tumor mass is present. Schaapveld: "These twofeatures make angiogenesis an ideal target for the development of novelanti-cancer strategies."
The recent discovery that non-coding RNAs, called microRNAs (miRNAs),play a critical role in gene regulation provides new opportunities todiscover RNAs that can control angiogenesis. The major aim of this project isto establish a technology platform for the development of (anti-cancer)therapeutics based on angiostatic miRNAs. miRNA is utilized as a therapeuticmodality and advanced nanoparticle delivery systems accomplish intracellulardelivery of nucleic acid agents. These will be combined with theidentification of surface receptor targets on tumor blood vessels to allowfor therapeutic intervention. Eventually, this will result in the developmentof anti-angiogenic miRNA-based therapeutic products for the treatment ofcancer.
SOURCE TI Pharma
