Antisense Therapeutics – antisense drugs

Antisense Therapeutics is a biopharma drug discovery and development company whose mission is to create, develop and commercialize novel antisense therapeutics.

Antisense Therapeutics – antisense drugs

Antisense Therapeutics

The explosion in genomic information led to the discovery of many new disease-causing proteins and created new opportunities accessible only to antisense technology. Antisense drugs are designed to bind to the mRNA of a target protein, inhibiting the protein production process. The completion of the human genome sequencing provides an important resource for the design of antisense drugs without requiring the complex and time consuming analysis of the structure of the target protein which is required for conventional small molecule drugs. The rapid development of antisense technologies offers almost unlimited scope for the development of new and highly specific therapeutics. Antisense Therapeutics, well positioned to play a significant role in the progression of antisense technology for drug development in human diseases, is already developing several compounds: ATL1101, ATL1102 and ATL1103.

ATL1101 is a second generation antisense inhibitor of insulin like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-Ir). IGF-Ir is an anti-apoptotic cell signaling molecule. Inhibition of cell survival molecules like IGF-Ir can render tumor cells more susceptible to cell death with cytotoxic drugs. In animal studies, ATL1101 demonstrated its effectiveness in suppressing prostate cancer tumor growth in mouse models of human prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in men after skin cancer.

ATL1102 is a second generation antisense inhibitor targeting VLA-4. VLA-4 is a receptor on the surface of lymphocytes implicated in immune cell adhesion to blood vessel walls and subsequent migration of lymphocytes into tissue. The inhibition of VLA-4 may prevent leukocytes from entering sites of inflammation, thereby slowing progression of the disease.  VLA-4 is a clinically validated target in the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). MS is a life-long, chronic disease that progressively destroys the central nervous system (CNS). It affects approximately 400.000 people in North America and represent an estimated market of USD$6 billion. Antisense Therapeutics successfully completed a Phase IIa efficacy and safety trial, significantly reducing the number of MRI lesions in patients with multiple sclerosis. ATL1102 also has encouraging results in an animal model of asthma with the inhaled form of an antisense compound targeting the VLA-4 molecule. Experimental studies showed that the delivery of an antisense drug against VLA-4 via inhalation to the lung significantly suppressed the key asthma indicators in allergen sensitized mice at very low inhaled doses, pointing to the potential new indication for ATL1102 as an inhaled treatment for asthma.

ATL1103 is an antisense drug designed to block growth hormone receptor (GHr) expression. Thus, it reduces levels of the hormone insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in the blood and has a good potential as treatment for diseases associated with excessive growth hormone action. ATL1103 is an exciting clinical development opportunity that has successfully passed through the research and pre-clinical stages of development.  The therapeutic activity of ATL1103 has been confirmed in animal pharmacology studies.
Antisense Therapeutics Limited (ANP) is an Australian publicly traded pharmaceutical drug discovery and development company. Board of Directors is composed by Robert Moses, Chris Belyea, Mark Diamond and Graham Mitchell, while Management’s Team iscomposed by Phillip Hains and George Tachas.

More about Antisense Therapeutics: www.antisense.com.au

Antisense Therapeutics – antisense therapeutics – antisense drugs – ATL1101 – ATL1102 – ATL1103 – VLA-4 – insulin like growth factor 1 receptor – IGF-Ir – Multiple Sclerosis – growth hormone receptor – GHr – insulin-like growth factor-I – IGF-I

Antisense Therapeutics – drug discovery – antisense therapeutic – antisense therapy – antisense therapies – antisense drug – antisense technology – antisense technologies – antisense – second generation antisense inhibitor – antisense inhibitor – VLA4 – anti-apoptotic – anti apoptotic – cell death – cytotoxic drugs – cytotoxic drug – prostate cancer – mouse model of human prostate cancer – mouse model human prostate cancer – lymphocytes – lymphocyte – immune cell adhesion – blood vessel – leukocytes – leukocyte – central nervous system – CNS – Antisense Therapeutics Limited – ANP – Robert Moses – Chris Belyea – Mark Diamond – Graham Mitchell – Phillip Hains – George Tachas