Compugen Discovers Peptide Drug Candidate for Treatment of Solid Tumor Cancers and Announces Positive In Vivo Results
16 Septiembre 2008 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGEN) today announced that its proprietary
DAC Blockers Discovery Platform has led to the discovery of
CGEN-25008, a novel peptide antagonist of the Clusterin protein.
Compugen also announced that recently analyzed in vitro and initial
in vivo results from cell-based assays and a lung cancer mouse
model indicate that CGEN-25008 reduces the growth rate of several
cancer cell lines and significantly enhances the anti-cancer
activity of Taxol�, a frequently used cancer chemotherapeutic drug.
Compugen�s DAC Blockers Platform was designed to predict peptides
that can block proteins of interest from achieving certain
disease-associated three-dimensional conformations. This discovery
platform, announced in March 2008, is one of nine proprietary
discovery platforms, to date, that have been developed and
validated by Compugen for predictive discovery of drug and
diagnostic product candidates. Alex Kotzer, president and CEO of
Compugen said, �Following our long term investment in establishing
unique research capabilities, we are extremely pleased by our
growing inventory of validated field-focused discovery platforms
and the resulting accelerating pace of product candidate
discoveries. Not surprisingly, these achievements are leading to
substantially increased interest by leading biopharma and
diagnostic companies to learn more about our unique capabilities
and to explore potential collaborations and licensing agreements.�
Today�s announcement follows the July 2008 announcement that in
vitro and in vivo validation studies have shown that
co-administration of CGEN-50001 significantly increases the effect
of Tamoxifen, which like Taxol, is a frequently used drug for
cancer therapy. However, unlike the novel peptide CGEN-25008,
CGEN-50001 is an existing drug used in Europe for central nervous
system (CNS) disorders. The potential use of this known drug in
cancer therapeutics was initially predicted in silico (by computer)
by Compugen�s New Indications Platform, designed to find new
therapeutic uses for existing drugs. Patents have been filed by the
company for both CGEN-25008 and the use of CGEN-50001 in cancer
therapy. The novel peptide CGEN-25008 being disclosed today has
been shown to slow the growth of human non-small cell lung cancer
cells and other malignant cell lines including breast, prostate,
colon and melanoma cancers when tested directly on such cancer
cells. In addition, administration of CGEN-25008 in remarkably low
doses (1 nano Molar) in combination with Taxol was shown to
increase the sensitivity of the cancer cells to Taxol, allowing a
ten-fold reduction in the concentration of Taxol while maintaining
the same anti-cancer effect. In addition a combination of a higher
dose of CGEN-25008 (80 nano Molar) with Taxol was shown to result
in a 40 percent increase over the maximal anti-cancer effect
achieved by Taxol alone. Yossi Cohen, M.D., vice president of
Research and Development at Compugen said, �In a mouse model of
lung cancer, the tumor size decreased significantly more when Taxol
was given in combination with CGEN-25008, as compared to when mice
were treated with Taxol alone. This may ultimately translate to
lower required doses of chemotherapy, with reduced side effects,
while maintaining its comparable therapeutic benefits or
potentially strengthening the maximal anti-cancer effects
achieved.� About Clusterin Clusterin is a stress-associated
cytoprotective extracellular chaperone protein that is up regulated
by various apoptotic triggers and confers treatment resistance in
various cancers. Among the stress signals that cause up-regulation
of Clusterin are chemotherapy, irradiation and hormone ablation.
The function of Clusterin in the acquisition of chemotherapy
resistance is currently an area of interest in both academic
research and within the biopharma industry. A Clusterin-inhibiting
antisense oligonucleotide is currently in clinical development by
another company as a potential treatment for increasing the
susceptibility of solid tumors to conventional cancer therapies.
About the DAC Blockers Discovery Platform The Blockers of
Disease-Associated Conformation (DAC Blockers) platform is a
discovery platform designed for the prediction and selection of
peptides that block proteins from adopting their disease-associated
conformations. This is accomplished through the use of a series of
proprietary algorithms to identify segments in proteins of interest
that, if introduced as synthetic peptides, would prevent the
proteins from adopting disease-associated conformations and related
activities and thus could have therapeutic benefits. In addition, a
key capability of the platform is that the prediction and selection
capability enables proteome-wide searches for such peptides in
proteins of interest within human, viral and bacterial proteomes.
About Compugen Compugen�s mission is to be the world leader in the
discovery and licensing of product candidates to the drug and
diagnostic industries under milestone and revenue sharing
agreements. The Company�s increasing inventory of powerful and
proprietary discovery platforms enable unprecedented
computer-based, predictive biological discoveries, field after
field, of numerous therapeutic and diagnostic product candidates.
The discovery platforms are based on the Company�s decade-long
focus on the predictive understanding of important biological
phenomena at the molecular level. Compugen�s current collaborations
include Biosite, Medarex, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc.,
Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics (a Johnson & Johnson company),
Roche, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Inc., and Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries. In 2002, Compugen established an
affiliate, Evogene Ltd. (TASE:EVGN.TA), to utilize the Company�s
in-silico (computerized) predictive discovery capabilities in the
agricultural biotechnology field. For additional information,
please visit Compugen's corporate Website at www.cgen.com and
Evogene�s corporate Website at www.evogene.com. This press release
may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements
include words such as �may�, �expects�, �anticipates�, �believes�,
and �intends�, and describe opinions about future events. These
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance or
achievements of Compugen to be materially different from any future
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Some of these risks are: changes in
relationships with collaborators; the impact of competitive
products and technological changes; risks relating to the
development of new products; and the ability to implement
technological improvements. These and other factors are identified
and more fully explained under the heading "Risk Factors" in
Compugen's annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
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