MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2005--Alethia BioTherapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company with innovative approaches for the treatment of cancer and related diseases, is pleased to announce today the filing of a PCT patent application encompassing the intellectual property surrounding new validated targets that play an important functional role in the differentiation and activation of osteoclasts, the bone-specific cells responsible for bone degradation. These candidate genes were discovered using Alethia's proprietary STAR technology (Subtractive Transcription-based Amplification of mRNA), a unique, patented discovery platform developed by scientists at Alethia to identify key regulators of biological activity in diseased cells and tissues. These new targets represent a diverse collection of highly specific regulators of osteoclast function, which had yet to be described in the context of bone metabolism. It is expected that some or all of these proteins will serve as excellent candidates for the development of novel treatments for bone-related disorders such as acute metastatic bone cancer, multiple myeloma, rheumatoid arthritis and chronic osteoporosis.
