BLUE BELL, Pa., Feb. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Inovio
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex:
INO), a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive
vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today
the publication of a scientific paper in the journal Human
Vaccines detailing potent immune responses in a preclinical
study of Inovio’s SynCon™ DNA vaccine for prostate cancer
targeting two antigens. While current prostate cancer therapies
target single antigens, in this study Inovio tested the hypothesis
in mice that a broader collection of antigens, administered with
Inovio’s electroporation-based delivery technology, would improve
the breadth and effectiveness of a prostate cancer
immunotherapy.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110127/LA37605LOGO)
The development of a new treatment for prostate cancer would be
a significant medical advance given that present treatment options
(surgery, radiation and hormone deprivation), while somewhat
effective, all carry deleterious side effects and often do not
confer long-term cure. Across the United States, there were 218,000
new cases of prostate cancer and more than 32,000 deaths in
2010.
This study, conducted by Inovio scientists and their
collaborators, is described in the published paper entitled,
“Co-delivery of PSA and PSMA DNA vaccines with electroporation
induces potent immune responses.” The SynCon™ DNA vaccine
evaluated in this study was generated by the creation of PSA and
PSMA synthetic consensus immunogens based on human and macaque
sequences, which enabled the amino acid sequences of the antigens
to differ slightly from the native protein. In humans, this
difference may aid in the evasion of self-tolerance while still
mounting an anti-tumor immune response. Mice received two
immunizati
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