Antisoma plc has released the new preclinical data on its anti-nucleolin aptamer drug AS1411 at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in San Diego CA.

AS1411 kills cells from a variety of blood cancer cell lines, including leukaemias, lymphomas and a myeloma. Among these were three Burkitt's lymphoma lines. A combination of AS1411 and doxorubicin, a drug often used to treat Burkitt's lymphoma. The AS1411-doxorubicin combination produced synergistic (more than additive) killing of the lymphoma cells.

Positive combination data regarding AML (acute myeloid leukaemia) cell lines. AS1411 was combined with cytarabine, a drug widely used in AML. A phase II trial is now evaluating the combination of AS1411 and cytarabine in AML patients. The AACR presentation extends the support for this approach from cell lines to in-vivo data. It shows that an AS1411-cytarabine combination synergistically inhibited the growth of human AML xenografts in mice.

Dr Fiona McLaughlin, Director of Research at Antisoma, said that new data provides further support for our AS1411-cytarabine combination trial in AML, and also illustrate the broader potential of AS1411 against a range of haematological malignancies.