PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 2006--AVI BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVII - News), has announced preclinical data evaluating the use of antisense-based exon skipping pre-RNA interference technology (ESPRIT) on the development of diabetes in a mouse model. Results were presented at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) annual meeting yesterday in San Francisco. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of AVI’s exon skipping technology in significantly delaying the onset of diabetes and in reversing the disease after onset. This work validates the application of ESPRIT technology in regulating the immune response in autoimmune diseases.
