LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CytRx Corporation’s (NASDAQ:CYTR) majority-owned subsidiary, RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (RXi), today announced the grant of an Australian patent issued to the University of Massachusetts Medical School covering in vivo production of small interfering RNA (siRNA) that mediate gene silencing. The granted claims of the patent cover siRNA molecules and their use in methods for inducing RNA interference of a target gene in mammalian cells in vivo. RXi has an exclusive license to this patent for specific therapeutic fields and gene targets, including the use of siRNA technology to inhibit the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), the most common intraocular infection in patients with AIDS; the mutant SOD1 gene shown to cause familial ALS in an animal model; and gene targets associated with type 2 diabetes and obesity.
