ALRT Presents New Drug Candidates At H&Q

Allergan Ligand Retinoid Therapeutics has presented data on threepotential new clinical candidates in its product pipeline at the 15th annual Hambrecht & Quist meeting held in San Francisco, USA, on January 7.

The three products, currently at the preclinical stage of development, are a retinoid X receptor selective agonist, code named ALRT268, a retinoic acid receptor alpha agonist and an RAR antagonist. According to Marvin Rosenthale, president of ALRT, at least two of the compounds will be selected to move into human trials due to begin in 1998.

RAR And RXR Compounds RARs, of which there are three subgroups, alpha, beta and gamma, are intracellular receptors involved in cell proliferation and differentiation. ALRT's topical RAR antagonist has a potential in the treatment and prevention of systemic retinoid-induced mucocutaneous toxicity, the firm says, while the RAR alpha selective agonist demonstrates high selectivity for receptors which inhibit cell proliferation in both leukemias and breast cancer. It adds that, because both the gamma and beta RAR subgroups remain unstimulated, side effects such as mucocutaneous and bone toxicity are avoided.