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Biotech / Medical : Geron Corp. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LJM who wrote (2975)	8/30/2006 11:43:47 PM
From: daveinmarinca	Respond to of 3576

an oral HIV/Aids medication that works! Is GERN finally taking off? stockcharts.com more conferences coming up Sept 4-6 in the UK geron.com and Geron will present the following paper at the American Chemical Society Nat Meeting in SF Sept 10 - 12 Human telomerase template antagonists as potential anticancer agents Sergei Gryaznov, SGryaznov@Geron.com, Geron Corporation, 230 Constitution Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025 Telomerase, the enzyme responsible for proliferative immortality, is expressed in essentially all cancer cells, but not in most normal human cells. Thus, specific telomerase inhibition may result in a potentially universal anticancer therapy. We prepared N3'?P5'phosphoramidate (NP) and N3'?P5' thio-phosphoramidate (NPS) oligonucleotides as telomerase template antagonists. We found that the ability of these compounds to form stable duplexes with the telomerase RNA subunit was the key factor for their anti-telomerase activity. In biochemical cell-free assays 11-13-mer NPS oligonucleotides demonstrated sequence- and dose-dependent inhibition of telomerase with IC50 values of <1 nM. Optimization of the compounds' sequence, length, and bioavailability (via covalent conjugation with lipophilic groups) resulted in the selection of a 13-mer NPS oligonucleotide-palmitic acid conjugate, GRN163L, as a development candidate. GRN163L inhibited telomerase in various tumor cell lines at ~ 0.03-0. 1 µM in the absence of cellular uptake enhancers. Telomerase inhibition by GRN163L was competitive with telomeric primer binding and was caused primarily by its hybridization to hTR. Administration of GRN163L caused telomere shortening, followed by cellular senescence or apoptosis of tumor cell lines. Importantly, the growth of normal cells was not affected by GRN163L. Furthermore, GRN163L has demonstrated a potent anti-tumor activity in vivo in various animal models. Currently, GRN163L is in Phase I/II clinical trial in patients with CLL. (http://oasys2.confex.com/acs/232nm/techprogram/…enter “Geron” in the “search” box) I wouldn't be surprised to see them give preliminary results from the Duke trials that are dramatic.....