Nastech and Mayo Clinic join for arthritis study

The collaboration will evaluate RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutic formulations in immune cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for the purpose of selecting a candidate for preclinical and clinical development.

The collaboration will involve the measurement of a series of inflammatory cytokines, including human tumor necrosis factor alpha (H-TNF-alpha), in serum from patients with RA. It will also involve the screening of proprietary formulations that contain siRNA sequences together with Nastech’s novel delivery excipients for H-TNF-alpha knockdown in immune cells collected from these patients.

“The collaboration with the Mayo Clinic will allow us to rapidly screen the effectiveness of our proprietary siRNA candidates to halt or reduce the expression of TNF-alpha in rheumatoid arthritis patients,” said Dr Paul Johnson, senior vice president of R&D and chief scientific officer of Nastech.

“While currently approved treatments for rheumatoid arthritis are designed to bind H-TNF-alpha protein or its receptor, we have demonstrated that our RNAi compound can reduce or eliminate TNF-alpha production, which is a different mechanism of action compared with any of the approved therapeutics. RNAi may thus provide a more effective treatment option.”