Silence Therapeutics said that the patent is issued for the methods of producing double stranded (RNAi) agents having decreased off-target silencing activity through certain structural modifications.
Apart from covering the minimising off-target gene expression silencing using short interfering RNA (siRNA), the issued claims also include specific claims directed to micro RNA (miRNA).
Silence Therapeutics’ latest issued patent is based on the seminal research of Phillip Zamore, investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology at University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Additionally, Silence owns exclusive licenses in the human healthcare fields to three Zamore patent families from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where Zamore is the co-director of the RNA Therapeutics Institute.
Philip Haworth, CEO of Silence Therapeutics, said: “This latest in a series of related patent issuances continues to highlight the value of the Zamore patent families. These patent families disclose various efficacy-enhancing methods and structural elements for RNAi therapeutics, informally known as the Zamore ‘Design Rules.’
“Whereas our last patent provided guidance in enhancing the desired silencing activity of RNAi agents, this latest patent covers the equally valuable ability to minimise the undesired off-target silence activity of RNAi agents.”