Sistemic Introduces New SistemRNA

Sistemic has claimed that the new oncology and inflammation products are expected to be of value to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are seeking to position new compounds or reposition existing compounds in these therapeutic areas. The oncology platform knowledgebase contains eight major drug classes, including HDACi, with five or more representatives from each class.

Sistemic said that instead of the traditional target orientated approach, SistemRNA Technology uses a compound-centric approach. This involves identifying drug effects by associative changes in microRNA expression profiles and their analysis in context against a proprietary database of known drug responses. Client compounds can then be characterised on the basis of indication, mechanism of action and adverse effects.

Vincent O’Brien, CSO of Sistemic, said: “The validity of our use of microRNA profiling as a sentinel marker of phenotypic effects in model systems is overwhelming, and we are seeing time and time again very strong correlations between microRNA changes and drug effects.”

Chris Hillier, CEO of Sistemic, said: “The strength of Sistemic’s approach is that we provide an extremely reliable way to make key decisions on safety and efficacy based on very strong biological information about the properties of your compound without reference to the expected target. This lack of bias produces valuable evidence to support drug development and has the power to create some very exciting opportunities.”