Friday, May 19, 2006
It's Not Easy To Give A Mouse HCV
It's not easy to give a mouse Hepatitis C. Scientists must modify the creature's liver and coax a virus to infect it. It's even harder to rid a mouse of hepatitis - a crucial step before curing people. Scientists at Sirna Therapeutics in , however, have done both. In July, Sirna published a paper that rocked the biotechnology world. Company researchers conquered a major problem in using RNA interference, one of the most promising new drug-discovery techniques: how to deliver RNA drugs to the right place in nontoxic doses. RNA, a genetic material similar to DNA, helps regulate a cell's activities. Since July 22, the last trading day before Sirna's announcement, the stock price has climbed about 66 percent to $4.36 Thursday. The shares, which traded at $8.28 in June 2002, had dropped to $1.67 at the beginning of July. "This is important. For RNA (interference) to be successful as a technology, it's all about delivery," said biotechnology analyst Michael King with Rodman and Renshaw Inc.
Sirna researchers crafted snippets of RNA that can switch genes on and off, or thwart nasty viruses by slicing up their genes, company officials said. They've also figured out how to "decorate" their RNA drugs with fat-like molecules, to keep them stable and nontoxic in the body - a breakthrough. The work was published in Nature Biotechnology July 24. The technique has worked now in Petri dishes, mice and monkeys, which have been cured of hepatitis with no side effects, Sirna officials said. "To be able to do selective gene silencing, that's the Holy Grail of medicine," said Howard Robin, Sirna's chief executive. Such claims for new techniques have been made before, said Barron Lerner, a medical historian and internist at in . Gene therapy, for example, has not delivered on its clinical promise, Lerner said, while bone marrow transplants for leukemia have... "This is going to change medicine," said John Rossi, a researcher with the Beckman Research Institute, a biomedical research center in "What they did was innovative." RNA, a genetic material similar to DNA, helps regulate a cell's activities. Since July 22, the last trading day before Sirna's announcement, the stock price has climbed about 66 percent to $4.36 Thursday. The shares, which traded at $8.28 in June 2002, had dropped to $1.67 at the beginning of July. "This is important. For RNA (interference) to be successful as a technology, it's all about delivery," said biotechnology analyst Michael King with Rodman and Renshaw Inc.
Sirna researchers crafted snippets of RNA that can switch genes on and off, or thwart nasty viruses by slicing up their genes, company officials said. They've also figured out how to "decorate" their RNA drugs with fat-like molecules, to keep them stable and nontoxic in the body - a breakthrough. The work was published in Nature Biotechnology July 24. The technique has worked now in Petri dishes, mice and monkeys, which have been cured of hepatitis with no side effects, Sirna officials said. "To be able to do selective gene silencing, that's the Holy Grail of medicine," said Howard Robin, Sirna's chief executive. Such claims for new techniques have been made before, said Barron Lerner, a medical historian and internist at in . Gene therapy, for example, has not delivered on its clinical promise, Lerner said, while bone marrow transplants for leukemia have...
# posted by Joyfulstill @ 6:42 PM 
