First androgen receptor mRNA antagonist enters clinical trials for CRPC
Posted Jan 12 2011 12:00am
Over the past 5 or so years we have seen a remarkable growth in the diversity of pharmaceuticals being developed for the treatment of more advanced forms of prostate cancer, and there is no sign of a slow-down yet.
Yesterday, a media release from Enzon Pharmaceuticals announced the initiation of a Phase Ia/b trial of EZN-4176, believed to be the first androgen receptor messenger RNA (mRNA) antagonist, for the treatment of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
What’s special about EZN-4176? Enzon claims that it is actually able to eliminate the androgen receptors from prostate cancer cells, thereby down-regulating (shutting down) cell proliferation as opposed to just suppressing cell proliferation like other agents.
It’s going to be a while before we know exactly how successful this strategy is when used to treat real patients with advanced cancer, and of course we don’t yet know what the side effects of EZN-4176 might be, but as a new pharmaceutical strategy it certainly sounds interesting.
The details of the actual trial will presumably be available on the ClinicalTrials.gov web site in the near future. What we know from the media release is that EZN-4176 will be given to patients intravenously over a period of about an hour on a once-a-week schedule in treatment cycles lasting 4 weeks.
Over the past 5 or so years we have seen a remarkable growth in the diversity of pharmaceuticals being developed for the treatment of more advanced forms of prostate cancer, and there is no sign of a slow-down yet.
Yesterday, a media release from Enzon Pharmaceuticals announced the initiation of a Phase Ia/b trial of EZN-4176, believed to be the first androgen receptor messenger RNA (mRNA) antagonist, for the treatment of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
What’s special about EZN-4176? Enzon claims that it is actually able to eliminate the androgen receptors from prostate cancer cells, thereby down-regulating (shutting down) cell proliferation as opposed to just suppressing cell proliferation like other agents.
It’s going to be a while before we know exactly how successful this strategy is when used to treat real patients with advanced cancer, and of course we don’t yet know what the side effects of EZN-4176 might be, but as a new pharmaceutical strategy it certainly sounds interesting.
The details of the actual trial will presumably be available on the ClinicalTrials.gov web site in the near future. What we know from the media release is that EZN-4176 will be given to patients intravenously over a period of about an hour on a once-a-week schedule in treatment cycles lasting 4 weeks.