Celera Genomics Presents Further Data From Its Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor Program As Cancer Therapeutics

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 2005--Celera Genomics Group (NYSE:CRA), an Applera Corporation business, today announced that its scientists will present three posters describing data from its histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor program at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics meeting, being held November 14-18, 2005, in Philadelphia, PA. Two of the posters that are being presented at the AACR meeting describe the inhibition of the HDAC enzyme activity that leads to tubulin and histone acetylation. The first poster, entitled “CRA-024781: A Potent HDAC Inhibitor, with Antitumor Activity in vitro and in vivo,” reported extensive molecular profiling of CRA-024781, which is currently undergoing Phase I clinical assessment. CRA-024781 was found to inhibit human tumor cell growth at sub-micromolar concentrations in vitro, and exhibits effects on several mechanistic biomarkers in vitro. Additionally, CRA-024781 was shown to induce the upregulation of specific genes at early time points and down regulation of different genes at later time points in certain tumors which respond to CRA-024781. It may be possible to utilize such gene expression profiles to optimally target CRA-024781 to specific tumors. These preclinical findings further support the application of CRA-024781 as an anti-cancer therapy and may be incorporated into Celera’s clinical trial strategy for CRA-024781. The second poster, entitled “CRA-026440, a potent HDAC inhibitor, as an anti-cancer agent,” focuses on Celera Genomics’ HDAC backup compound CRA-026440 currently in preclinical development. CRA-026440 is a broad spectrum HDAC inhibitor that exhibited growth-inhibitory activities at sub-micromolar concentrations in vitro against a panel of human cancer cell lines. CRA-026440 has significant anti-tumor activity and was well tolerated in an HCT 116 tumor xenograft model. Additive efficacy was observed when CRA-026440 was combined with 5-FU or Avastin(R) in a colon tumor xenograft study. Furthermore, expression profiling analysis of CRA-026440 in vivo identified a set of genes that may contribute to the understanding and application of CRA-026440 as an HDAC inhibitor in anti-cancer therapy.

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