LONDON (Agence de Presse Medicale for Reuters Health) - UK biotech company Antisoma said on Thursday new data showed that one of its telomere-targeting agents (TTA) rapidly blocks prostate tumour growth in a human xenograft model.
“While in untreated control animals tumours grew to lethal size within 10 days, animals given the TTA experienced a halt in tumour growth at around day 7 and survived to the experiment’s end on day 25,” the company said in a statement.
Antisoma’s head of research, Lloyd Kelland, said: “What’s really exciting about these TTAs is the speed of their anti-tumour effects. We’re not having to wait for many rounds of cell division before the effects kick in, which was a major concern with earlier drugs that were pure telomerase inhibitors.”
Clinical trials should begin by 2006, a company spokesman said.
MeSH Headings:Drugs, Investigational: Telomere: TelomeraseCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
