AACR presentation illustrates broad potential of Antisoma’s AS1411 in blood cancers

London, UK, and San Diego, CA: April 2008 – Antisoma plc (LSE: ASM; USOTC: ATSMY) announces that new preclinical data on its anti-nucleolin aptamer drug AS1411 are presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in San Diego, CA.

The presentation shows that AS1411 killed cells from a variety of blood cancer cell lines, including leukaemias, lymphomas and a myeloma. Among these were three Burkitt’s lymphoma lines. In further experiments, these lines were treated with a combination of AS1411 and doxorubicin, a drug often used to treat Burkitt’s lymphoma. The AS1411-doxorubicin combination produced synergistic (more than additive) killing of the lymphoma cells.

Positive combination data have also been obtained in AML (acute myeloid leukaemia) cell lines. Here, AS1411 was combined with cytarabine, a drug widely used in AML. A phase II trial is now evaluating the combination of AS1411 and cytarabine in AML patients. The AACR presentation extends the support for this approach from cell lines to in-vivo data. It shows that an AS1411-cytarabine combination synergistically inhibited the growth of human AML xenografts in mice.

Dr Fiona McLaughlin, Director of Research at Antisoma, said: “These new data provide further support for our AS1411-cytarabine combination trial in AML, and also illustrate the broader potential of AS1411 against a range of haematological malignancies.”
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