AVI BioPharma Announces Positive Results With NeuGene Antisense Drugs at the Endocrine Society Annual Meeting
PORTLAND, Ore. — June 6, 2005 — AVI BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVII), today announced presentation of positive results from two preclinical studies at the 87th Annual Meeting of the Endocrine Society being held in San Diego June 4–7, 2005. The presentations discuss application of NeuGene® antisense drugs for treating prostate cancer and overcoming chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer.
“These study results add to our existing knowledge of the role of NeuGene antisense drugs in cancer,” said Patrick L. Iversen, Ph.D., senior vice president of research and development at AVI. “The prostate cancer study, which was sponsored in part by the National Cancer Institute, demonstrates our ability to down-regulate the androgen receptor, which plays a pivotal role in the growth and proliferation of prostate cancer. The study we conducted in ovarian cancer builds on our previous experience targeting the XIAP gene, and lends additional credibility to this approach.”
The first study, “Development of a Neutrally Charged Antisense-based Androgen Receptor Antagonist for Prostate Cancer Therapy,” demonstrates that down-regulation of androgen receptor expression by NeuGene antisense oligomers may be an alternative therapeutic approach to antagonize androgen receptor function for prostate cancer therapy.
The second study, “X-Linked Inhibitor of Apoptotic Protein, XIAP, Expression Correlates With Chemotherapeutic Resistance in Mismatch Repair Deficient Ovarian Cancer,” evaluated using NeuGene drugs to target the XIAP gene, which has been found to protect cancer cells from the effects of radiation. Radiation therapy plays an important role in the management of a majority of cancers, and resistance to radiotherapy can be a significant treatment hurdle. Study results suggest that antisense targeting XIAP produces a significant decrease in expression of XIAP levels and a corresponding decrease in cancer cell viability in an ovarian cancer model. This study was conducted in collaboration with scientists at Oregon State University.
Presentation abstracts are available on The Endocrine Society Web site at www.endo-society.org.
About AVI BioPharma
AVI BioPharma develops therapeutic products for the treatment of life-threatening diseases using third-generation NeuGene antisense drugs. AVI’s lead NeuGene antisense compound is designed to target cell proliferation disorders, including cardiovascular restenosis, cancer and polycystic kidney disease. In addition to targeting specific genes in the body, AVI’s antiviral program uses NeuGene antisense compounds to combat disease by targeting single-stranded RNA viruses, including West Nile virus, hepatitis C virus, dengue virus and Ebola virus. More information about AVI is available on the company’s Web site at www.avibio.com.
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