Quark Pharmaceuticals Announces the Presentation of Data Indicating Potential Utility of QPI-1002 in Chronic Kidney Disease at the RNA Interfere...( FREMONT Calif. June 9 /- Quark Pharma...),Health

FREMONT, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a development-stage pharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutics, today announced that Bruce A. Molitoris, M.D., Director, Division of Nephrology and Professor of Medicine, Indiana University, will present data demonstrating efficacy in models of acute and chronic kidney disease (AKI and CKD, respectively) of an animal analogue of QPI-1002 at the RNA Interference Summit being held June 8-10, 2009 in San Francisco, CA. QPI-1002, a siRNA drug candidate being developed by Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is the first systemically-administered siRNA to enter human clinical trials. The drug is the subject of two multi-center Phase I studies for acute kidney injury (AKI) and one Phase I/II study for delayed graft function (DGF) in kidney transplantation. QPI-1002 targets p53, a gene that plays a pivotal role in the stress-response apoptotic pathway.

Using intravital 2-photon in life microscopy to follow the distribution of fluorescent labeled siRNA in the rat kidney, Prof. Molitoris demonstrated rapid and predominant distribution of the siRNA to kidney proximal tubular cells (PTC), which are the main type of suffering cells in the context of ischemic or toxic kidney injury. Dose response and time course studies exploring efficacy of the animal analogue of QPI-1002 in the AKI models in rats indicated excellent efficacy of the drug in reducing serum creatinine levels and ameliorating acute morphological damage to the kidney including PTC death. The data indicate that recurrent dosing of the drug concomitantly with monthly repetitive ischemic kidney insults minimizes the resulting kidney injury and can attenuate development of associated chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Daniel Zurr, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are excited to see this as a possible additional indication for QPI-1002; the compoun
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