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Silence Therapeutics encouraged by kidney disease trial results

Published: 17:04 30 Jul 2014 AEST

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RNA interference specialist Silence Therapeutics’ (LON:SLN) treatment for delayed graft function (DGF) in kidney transplants has been shown to be beneficial and tolerated in a phase II trial.

Licence holder Quark Pharmaceuticals carried out the trial of the drug, QPI-1002, on 331 dialysis-dependent patients in North America and Europe.

While the primary endpoint of a 30% reduction in DGF across the whole group was not met, there was a 15.1% relative risk reduction that rose to a 30.5% relative reduction in the largest patient subgroup.

Dr V Ram Peddi, director of kidney transplant research at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, said: "The findings of this study showing QPI-1002 decreases DGF, especially in older donor transplants, are exciting and warrant further study with this investigational agent that could improve outcomes from older kidneys."

RNA interference is a technology that selectively turns off or silences genes in certain diseases.

QPI-1002 targets transient protein P53, a known contributor to kidney cell death and an underlying trigger of the injury that causes DGF.

The siRNA modification used in QPI-1002, known as AtuRNAi, was developed by Silence Therapeutics.

Ali Mortazavi, Silence Therapeutics’ chief executive said: "This study has highlighted the safety and potency of our technology in humans. With more than 160 additional patients dosed with AtuRNAi, there is further valuable data to add to the safety record we already have.

"We have also seen some clinical activity and efficacy in this study, confirming the clinical utility of our technology.”

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