Santaris' SPC2996 active in animal model of CLL

Copenhagen, Denmark-based RNAi specialist Santaris Pharma presented encouraging data at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, held in Los Angeles, showing that SPC2996, its RNA antagonist of Bcl-2, is therapeutically active in a preclinical model of human chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

In collaboration with scientists at the University of Duisberg-Essen in Germany, Santaris researchers reported that white blood cells obtained from CLL patients' peripheral blood can be transplanted into immunodeficient mice and reliable engraftment of human CLL cells achieved in the spleen, resulting in focal aggregates of B-lymphocytes carrying surface markers characteristic of CLL cancer cells.

SPC2996 was tested for anti-leukemic activity over two weeks in this model starting two weeks after transplantation and compared for efficacy with multiple doses of fludarabine, a standard chemotherapy for CLL, as well as a negative control oligonucleotide drug similar to but of different sequence from SPC2996.