Marina Biotech research and development executive vice president Richard Ho said the SMARTICLES delivery technology is advancing into another clinical development effort.
"With the initiation of this trial, Marina will be the only company with a delivery technology that is being used to deliver both single-stranded and double-stranded oligonucleotide therapeutics in clinical trials," Ho added.
"We look forward to Mirna’s continued advancement of this program and the validation of our oligonucleotide delivery platform."
The Phase 1 study is designed to have an initial dose-escalation phase followed by an enrichment phase and is expected to enrol a total of 48 patients.
The miRNA molecule is approximately 20-25 nucleotides long and affect gene expression by interacting with messenger RNAs.
It mimics tumour suppressor miR34 and is delivered using SMARTICLES.
A Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Commercialization grant is funding the programme in part.