Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Biotech & Pharma.T.A, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jibacoa who wrote (2664)	3/29/2010 9:38:55 AM
From: Jibacoa	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3722

MRNA is having another spike today.<g> The stock opened with an UG and is up 37.76% with volume of > 1.3M getting close to its ADV. <g> bigcharts.marketwatch.com MRNA announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for its methods of delivery siRNAs as well as a broad array of compounds with pharmacological activity. The patent identifies and protects peptides that were discovered using MDRNA's proprietary Trp Cage Phage Display Library and describes targeting peptides that demonstrate high binding affinity to, and internalization by, hepatocellular carcinoma cells. "Specificity to individual cell types and internalization are key attributes required for peptide-directed delivery," said Barry Polisky, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of MDRNA. "The Trp Cage Phage Display Library is proving to be a robust means to screen and identify peptides that impart these targeting characteristics. The addition of these novel peptides to our proprietary DiLA2 delivery platform technology permits the potential development of highly tissue- and cell-specific RNAi-based therapies for the treatment of cancers in which the need to differentiate between normal and diseased cells is important." MDRNA's proprietary Trp Cage Phage Display Library (J Biol Chem. 2007 282(13):9813) is the subject of an issued patent, U.S. patent 7,329,725. The Trp Cage motif is highly structured allowing for the identification of peptides with high binding affinity for specific cell or tissue types, and avoids the limitations and weak binding often associated with linear peptide libraries. This technology is directly applicable to the Company's DiLA2 delivery platform as peptides are readily conjugated to the amino acid scaffold of a DiLA2. Peptides capable of directed delivery are expected to further improve the delivery efficiency of UsiRNAs, which have demonstrated significant knockdown of target genes in mouse models of liver and bladder cancer, and in non-human primates. "This is the second Notice of Allowance that we have received in the past four months from the USPTO for a patent application that covers the use of our proprietary targeting peptide technology," said J. Michael French, President and CEO of MDRNA. On December 17, 2009, MDRNA received a Notice of Allowance from the USPTO for patent application U.S. 11/627,863, which covers the use of targeting peptides that have preferential binding affinity for lung tissue. The ACTAY is $3 but with some good news it seems the stock could get to the $5 level.<g> bigcharts.marketwatch.com Bernard