CytRx's RNAi program sees progress in 2006

During 2006, US drugmaker CytRx Corp says it has seen considerable progress in its drug discovery programs using its proprietary RNA interference technologies in the development of novel drugs for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

According to the Los Angeles-headquartered firm, improvements in its RNAi screening platform have been instrumental in driving its rapid progress. The technology, which is used to identify and validate novel targets, has been extended to include muscle and liver cells in addition to fat cells. The company says it is utilizing highly-efficient, parallel gene silencing to locate therapeutically-interesting molecules involved in insulin signaling and other pathways.

Summarizing the group's approach, Mark Tepper, senior vice president of drug discovery at CytRx' facility in Worcester, Massachusetts,USA, said that, "using this platform, we have shown that we can quickly identify and validate novel drug targets, screen them for small-molecule inhibitors and show that these inhibitors are active in the original functional assay."