RICHMOND, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO - News) today announced the presentation of new preclinical animal data from its therapeutic program to develop a novel treatment for ischemic cardiovascular and peripheral vascular diseases (PAD) at the 6th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy.
The results, obtained in the ischemic rabbit hind limb model, the primary animal efficacy model for PAD, demonstrate that Sangamo's engineered zinc finger DNA-binding protein transcription factors (ZFP TFs), designed to activate the endogenous vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene, were capable of increasing the formation of new blood vessels in the ischemic limb by more than 50% over controls. Furthermore, these data demonstrate that this increase in new blood vessel density lead to a two-fold increase in blood flow in the ischemic limb on day 11 after treatment as compared to controls. The benefit of the VEGF ZFP TF was persistent and continued through the duration of the study.
"The results are very encouraging and validate our program to develop ZFP TFs as a novel treatment approach for ischemic cardiovascular and peripheral vascular diseases," said Edward Lanphier, Sangamo's president and chief executive officer. "These data, as well as results from additional, more recent studies will be incorporated into an investigational new drug (IND) application for PAD. PAD is our initial indication for therapeutic angiogenesis although we are continuing to evaluate the activation of VEGF for other ischemic cardiovascular indications such as coronary artery disease (CAD)."
An abstract describing this study titled "A Genetically Engineered Plasmid Encoding a Zinc Finger VEGF-Activating Transcription Factor Induces Angiogenesis in Rabbits with Hind-Limb Ischemia" was presented on June 7, by Christopher Kontos, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Duke University Medical Center. The work was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Brian Annex, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Therapeutic Angiogenesis Research Program at Duke University Medical Center.
Tyler Martin, M.D., Sangamo's vice president, development said, "These results are very exciting. The VEGF ZFP TF demonstrated statistically significant effects on prevention of cell death after induction of ischemia, increased endothelial cell proliferation, increased vascular density, and increased blood flow. The increased blood flow was noted much earlier for VEGF ZFP TF than has been previously reported for other angiogenic agents."
A second study titled "Induction of Angiogenesis in Rat Skeletal Muscle Using a Designed Zinc Finger Protein Transcriptional Activator Targeted to Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGF-A)", was carried out by scientists from both Sangamo and Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW - News), and was presented at the meeting on Friday, June 6. The authors demonstrate that the ZFP TF activated the expression of the rat VEGF-A gene and led to enhanced vessel densities as determined by staining of tissue samples with antibodies against smooth muscle actin and von Willebrand Factor... |
