Quark Pharmaceuticals Announces Publication of Study on Use of siRNA against Proprietary Target for Inhibiting Tumor Growth and Sensitization of Cancer Cells to Ch...( Quark siRNAs Examined Alone and i...),Health

Quark siRNAs Examined Alone and in Combination with Chemotherapy

FREMONT, Calif. Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a development-stage pharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutics, today announced that the journal Cancer Research published results on efficacy of siRNA targeting its proprietary target gene against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the edition dated October 1, 2008. The paper, entitled "RNAi-Mediated Silencing of Nuclear Factor Erythroid-2-Related Factor 2 Gene Expression in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Inhibits Tumor Growth and Increases Efficacy of Chemotherapy," reports on research performed in collaboration with Professor Shyam Biswal of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. The results provide a basis for a potential new drug candidate to be added to Quark's pipeline.

The study examined efficacy of RNAi-mediated reduction of Nuclear Factor Erythroid-2-Related Factor 2 (Nrf2) expression in vitro and in in vivo mouse NSCLC xenograft models alone or in combination with chemotherapy. The results show that RNAi-mediated reduction of Nrf2 expression generates reactive oxygen species, suppresses tumor growth, and increases sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drug-induced cell death.

Elena Feinstein, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Quark Pharmaceuticals, said, "Nrf2 appears in our IP portfolio as a novel drug target for cancer treatment. Discovery of the target's role in cancer was made years ago, using our proprietary functional high throughput drug target discovery method, BiFAR(TM), when we looked for genes whose inhibition could sensitize cancer cells to apoptosis. Since then, much progress has been made to study the concept of Nrf2 inhibition for cancer treatment by the scientific community. One of the major contributors in this field is Prof. Biswal from Johns Hopkins University wi
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