Ascenta Therapeutics Announces Results of Preclinical Evaluation of AT-406 in Multiple Can...( - Data on novel pro-apoptotic agent p...)

- Data on novel pro-apoptotic agent presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research -

- University of Pennsylvania data on chemotherapy resistance patterns in neuroblastoma cell lines, highlighting AT-101's inhibition of Mcl-1, also presented -

MALVERN, Pa., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascenta Therapeutics announced today that the results of preclinical studies of its orally-active, small molecule, pro-apoptotic agent, AT-406, have been presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), in Denver, Colorado (Abstract # 1917).

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090227/PH75873LOGO )

The studies demonstrated that AT-406 was active as a single agent in vitro in a number of cell lines, including breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and bladder cancer, and in several mouse xenograft cancer models. AT-406 also showed synergistic or additive effects when used together with tyrosine kinase inhibitors or chemotherapy in vitro in those cell lines.

"AT-406 is the second agent in our development pipeline to demonstrate broad anti-cancer activity in pre-clinical models, including synergy with other agents, by targeting a specific apoptotic pathway," said Mel Sorensen, MD, CEO of Ascenta Therapeutics. "On the basis of these encouraging data, we plan to submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow us to begin human clinical trials with AT-406 later this year."

About AT-406

AT-406 is an orally-active, small molecule drug designed to promote programmed cell death (apoptosis) in tumor cells
'/>"/>