On April 20, 2016 Mirna Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:MIRN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a broad pipeline of microRNA-based oncology therapeutics, reported the presentation of new preclinical data at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2016 in New Orleans (Press release, Mirna Therapeutics, APR 20, 2016, View Source [SID:1234511166]). Researchers reported results in two poster presentations from experiments demonstrating that the Company’s lead microRNA therapeutic, MRX34 (miR-34), is synergistic with widely used cancer chemotherapies and next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).
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"These in vitro data suggest that MRX34 has strong potential in combination with other cancer drugs," commented Miguel Barbosa, Ph.D., Mirna’s Chief Scientific Officer. "The ability of miR-34 to control multiple oncogenic pathways may overcome both primary and acquired resistance when used in combination with chemotherapy or TKIs."
In a poster (#4829) entitled, "miRNA Combination Therapy: in vitro Anticancer Synergy Between miR-34a Mimic and Cytotoxic Chemotherapy (CT) in NSCLC," researchers from Mirna and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio reported:
Synergistic anticancer effects were observed between miR-34a and platinum and other commonly used cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs, across a range of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines with varying degrees of resistance.
The synergy observed suggests the potential for lower, less toxic doses of chemotherapy than currently used in the clinic when in combination with miR-34a.
In a second poster (#4814) entitled, "MicroRNA (miRNA) Combination Therapy: in vitro Anticancer Synergy Between miR-34a Mimic and Next Generation EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) in NSCLC," researchers from Mirna reported:
Synergistic anticancer effects were shown between miR-34a and next-generation EGFR TKIs afatinib and rociletinib against a range of wild-type and mutant NSCLC cell lines. These results extend similar findings with the first-generation EGFR TKI erlotinib (Zhao et al, PLoS ONE 9(2):e89105).
Results support the potential of MRX34 and EGFR TKI combinations to overcome both primary and acquired resistance to EGFR TKIs in patients with NSCLC.
Mirna is a grant recipient of the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) for preclinical and clinical testing of microRNA and targeted drug combination therapies, and also of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the study of combination molecular therapies for lung cancer, as well as miRNAs in combination with standard of care chemotherapy.
The posters may be accessed from the Events & Presentations section of the Company’s website.