John Maraganore, CEO, Alnylam
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
By Don Seiffert
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY) announced the results of pre-clinical studies today using its RNA interference (RNAi) technology which it says could lead to the development of more effective vaccine therapies for cancer as well as infectious diseases.
The results, published in the journal Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy, were of studies done by Alnylam?s collaborators at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Alnylam CEO John Maraganore told Mass High Tech that the university is applying RNAi - a method by which genes in cells can be turned off, preventing disease-causing proteins from being made - to dendritic cell (DC) cancer vaccines, which work by directing the body?s T-cells to specifically target cancer cells. One such vaccine is currently on the market for the treatment of prostate cancer through the Seattle, Wash. company, Dendreon Corp., said Maraganore.
The hope is that the vaccine can be made more effective through RNAi. Maraganore said that RNAi effectively boosts dendritic cell?s ability to attack cancer cells.
He said that the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre has some far conducted animal testing, but plans to advance into clinical studies within a year. Alnylam would stand to gain from any vaccine that eventually come on the market through the research, but said that financial arrangements are yet to be made. ?The first step is to develop the vaccine,? he said.
?While much progress has been made in the development of dendritic cell vaccines in cancer, there is a clear need to improve this strategy for increased clinical benefit. Specifically, further advancement of dendritic cell therapies requires an enhanced potency of the T-cell anti-tumor responses,? said Harry Dolstra, associate professor at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Laboratory of Hematology, in a statement. ?These new findings show that a relatively simple ex vivo RNAi approach may be able to boost the effectiveness of cellular therapies in the treatment of cancer, and possibly chronic viral infections.?
Cambridge-based Alnylam is planning to have five drug candidates in clinical trials by the end of 2015 which all rely on the company?s gene-switching RNAi technology.
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