Promising animal data on RxBio's radiation drug

USA-based RxBio says that its lead product, RX100, protects against lethal, whole-body radiation when administered before, during, or up to several hours after exposure. According to the firm, animal studies demonstrate that the agent can prevent death if given before or during lethal radiation exposure or rescue life if administered within six hours of lethal, whole-body radiation exposure.

Gabor Tigyi, professor of physiology at the USA's University of Tennessee Health Science Center, said that "RX100 is unique among radioprotectants. It is an analog of an endogenous, prosurvival molecule that is metabolically stabilized which boosts natural mechanisms that promote and sustain cell survival while inhibiting the cascade leading to programmed cell death. While other agents shut down essential cellular-signaling mechanisms involved in radiation-induced cellular injury, tend to lack specificity and may deliver unacceptable toxicities, RX100 is a specific activator of natural, non-toxic, protective mechanisms of cell survival."