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news.Sunesis Pharmaceuticals has selected a molecule, named SNS-314, which it intends to develop as a potential oncology treatment. It is hoped that the molecule may be effective in a number of tumor types including colon cancer, breast cancer, and leukemia.
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After initial pre-clinical development, the company plans to file an investigational new drug application with the FDA and commence clinical trials for SNS-314 in 2006.
SNS-314 is a small molecule kinase inhibitor that has shown promising selectivity and activity as a potential anticancer therapy in vitro and vivo testing.
“One of the goals of our Aurora program is to develop a mitotic inhibitor that has broad anti-tumor activity, but that will not result in significant peripheral neuropathy, a common and potentially debilitating side effect of certain chemotherapies,” commented Dr Daniel Adelman, senior vice president, Drug Discovery and Development of Sunesis. “We believe SNS-314 has the potential to selectively target actively dividing tumor cells in a variety of cancer types and halt tumor cell proliferation,” added Dr Adelman.
SNS-314 is a targeted inhibitor of Aurora A and B intended to arrest cellular proliferation and limit tumor growth by initiating programmed cell death. Aurora kinases are key enzymes involved in cell growth and division, and play an essential role in the abnormal proliferation of tumor cells.