These days, BLUE HP regrets its sale INGN. Bernard was noting the last review article on it did not include MDA-7. Here's some recent news about it, that boosted INGN mid-day when it was released.
>>AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A publication in a recent issue of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery details the findings of a preclinical study in which Introgen Therapeutics' (Nasdaq: INGN - News) therapy INGN 241 causes lung cancer cells to undergo cell death through a unique mechanism of action. The study was conducted with Introgen's collaborators at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. INGN 241, Introgen's mda-7 therapy is also being evaluated in a phase 2 clinical trial for various solid tumors.
Dr. Stephen Swisher, associate professor in the department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at M. D. Anderson and principal author of the publication said, "We have discovered that INGN 241 kills cancer cells in a novel and unique way. Our goal with this study was to find a way to circumvent certain processes in a tumor which make it resistant to treatment and we have shown that we can overcome that resistance cellularly to kill cancer cells effectively."
In the published study, Dr. Swisher and colleagues evaluated the molecular mechanisms underlying how INGN 241 kills lung cancer cells. Their research showed that INGN 241 rapidly caused programmed cell death, known as apoptosis, in tumor cells containing either normal or a mutated p53 gene. When INGN 241 was compared to Advexin, Introgen's p53 therapy, the researchers discovered that the different tumor suppressor genes use different pathways to induce cell death. When compared to other vectors containing the bax or bak genes, INGN 241 had a significant advantage in that it did not kill normal cells. A number of commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs kill cells by activating mitochondrial proteins. Mitochondria are the energy powerhouses of our cells and are critical for cell survival. This study shows that INGN 241 kills cancer cells independently of these mitochondrial drug-sensitive components, which could be an advantage in developing therapies to treat cancer patients whose tumors are resistant to chemotherapeutics.<<
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Cheers, Tuck |
