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Silence's breakthough opens up new therapeutic areas, says CEO

Last updated: 01:40 02 Dec 2014 AEDT, First published: 02:40 02 Dec 2014 AEDT

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Silence Therapeutics (LON:SLN) shares rose on Monday after it said it made a "significant" breakthrough with its gene expression technology, which could be used to treat serious diseases.

Investors will already be aware of the firm's gene silencing platform  called siRNA.

This stands for short interfering RNA and put simply it can switch off or silence producing too much protein.

Now the firm has shown its technology can be used to put proteins back in where they are missing. This process uses messenger RNA, or mRNA.

And it has been successfully deployed in animals to produce potentially therapeutic levels of protein.

Messenger RNAs are molecules that convey genetic information from DNA in a cell's nucleus to the ribosomes in the cell to specify the type of protein that should be expressed.

Silence chief executive Ali Mortazavi, told Proactive this makes Silence one of only three or four companies in the world which has been able to do this in live animal studies.

"It opens up a whole new set of therapeutic areas for us," said Mortazavi, who pointed out that previously the company had been focused on silencing genes rather than adding to them.

Cystic Fibrosis and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophe, the result of rare genetic deficiencies, are two of the ailments it could be used to treat.

The company aims to move this technology into primate studies over the next 12 months. 

Today's breakthrough announcement came alongside an update given to analysts and investors attending a capital markets day.

Silence confirmed that its phase IIa clinical study of its lead cancer treatment, Atu027, is on schedule for review in the second quarter of next year.

The drug is being used in combination with chemotherapy gemcitabine to treat pancreatic cancer, a terminal form of the disese.

It also told investors the University of Birmingham remains on track with the recruitment of patients for its phase Ib study in head and neck cancer using Atu027 in combination. 

At the same time it revealed it is reviewing options for Atu111, which has the potential to be used in acute lung injuries.

Broker Canaccord, which rates the shares a 'buy', said the update showed Silence had made significant progress in both developing its delivery systems and generating product candidates over the past 12 months.

"Efficacy and commercial opportunity of multiple projects are being assessed, which is likely to result in R&D spend in FY15 above our estimates, and we add £1.5m to our forecasts," said analyst Julie Simmonds.

She highlighted the firm now had the capability of both up and down-regulating proteins in cells. 

Silence had net cash of £22mln as at November 30, sufficient for two years.

Canaccord has a 425p price target on the stock, offering punchy upside from the current price of 220p.

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