BOTHELL, Wash. and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 4,
2011 /PRNewswire/ — OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:
OGXI) announced today that preclinical data utilizing their
pipeline compound OGX-427 was presented at the AACR 102nd Annual
Meeting 2011. The study demonstrated the ability of OGX-427 to
inhibit Heat Shock Protein 27 (Hsp27), a cell-survival protein
believed to play an important role in the proliferation of castrate
resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and resistance to standard
therapies.
Hsp27, expressed in prostate cancer and a variety of other
malignancies, can be induced by cell stress such as chemotherapy,
radiation therapy, and hormone therapy. Molecular chaperones that
are heat shock proteins such as Hsp27 act to repair the damage of
misfolding of cell structures that can occur when a cell is
stressed, thereby enhancing the ability of cancer cells to
survive.
The goal of this study was to test the ability of OGX-427, a
second-generation antisense therapy, and other mechanisms (siRNA
and proteasome inhibition MG132) in silencing the effects of Hsp27.
The study showed that OGX-427 inhibits Hsp27 and therefore a cell
survival process called autophagy, to increase intracellular
unfolded protein burden and cause prostate cancer cell death.
“As cancers become resistant to standard therapies we need to
identify new ways to continue to effectively treat them,” says Dr.
Martin Gleave, Director of The Vancouver Prostate Centre at The
University of British Columbia and researcher on this study. “This
study confirms the potential utility of inhibiting cell-survival
proteins like Hsp27, and the potential for OGX-427 as a novel
therapeutic strategy to target for anti-cancer therapies.”
These pre-clinical data further support the current OGX-427
development plan in prostate and bladder cancers:
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