Celera Genomics Announces Promising Results from HDAC Inhibitor Program

Celera Genomics, an Applera Corporation business, has made significant progress in its histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor program, presenting three posters at the American Association for Cancer Research International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics meeting. The company's scientists reported extensive molecular profiling of CRA-024781, a potent HDAC inhibitor currently undergoing Phase I clinical assessment. Preliminary results demonstrate CRA-024781's ability to inhibit human tumor cell growth at sub-micromolar concentrations in vitro and exhibit effects on mechanistic biomarkers in vitro.

Key Takeaways:

• Celera Genomics' scientists presented three posters at the AACR meeting, describing data from the HDAC inhibitor program.
• Two of the posters focused on CRA-024781, a potent HDAC inhibitor undergoing Phase I clinical assessment, and reported its ability to inhibit human tumor cell growth and exhibit effects on mechanistic biomarkers in vitro.
• CRA-024781 showed extensive molecular profiling, including inhibition of HDAC enzyme activity, tubulin, and histone acetylation.
• The compound exhibited additive efficacy when combined with 5-FU or Avastin in a colon tumor xenograft study.
• Expression profiling analysis of CRA-024781 in vivo identified a set of genes that may contribute to its application as an HDAC inhibitor in anti-cancer therapy.
• Celera Genomics' third poster outlined the design of substituted phenyl hydroxamic acids as HDAC inhibitors, providing additional data following the first report of the crystal structure of the enzyme HDAC-8 published by Celera Genomics in 2004.
• Robert Booth, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Celera Genomics, stated that the company is encouraged with the progress made in its HDAC inhibitor program and that these findings have generated proprietary knowledge towards advancing the program cost-effectively and timely.

Statistics:

• 3 posters were presented at the AACR meeting, describing data from Celera Genomics' HDAC inhibitor program.
• 2 posters focused on CRA-024781, a potent HDAC inhibitor currently undergoing Phase I clinical assessment.
• 40 patients are being enrolled in the Phase I trial of CRA-024781 at the University of Chicago Hospitals.
• Celera Genomics reported in July 2005, the initiation of Phase I clinical testing for CRA-024781 in patients with refractory solid malignancies.
• Histone deacetylase enzymes are a family of related enzymes that are involved in chromatin structure and gene expression patterns.

Sources:

• Press Release, Applera Corporation, Celera Genomics Group (November 14, 2005)
• Celera Genomics, About CRA-024781
• Celera Genomics, About Celera Genomics and Applera Corporation
• Johnstone, RW. Histone-Deacetylase Inhibitors: Novel drugs for the treatment of cancer. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 2002, 1:287-299.