Anyone Heard Of: "REXIN-G"???

[Rich66]

SAN MARINO, Calif., Oct 06, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Epeius Biotechnologies Corporation today announced the publication of another landmark paper describing recent technological advances in medical gene delivery. The latest scientific paper, entitled "Targeting metastatic cancer from the inside: A new generation of targeted gene delivery vectors enables personalized cancer vaccination in situ," was published in the October issue of the International Journal of Oncology (IJO). The paper describes the new state-of-the-art in tumor-targeting biotechnology, nanotechnology, and therapeutic gene delivery developed for clinical applications in the field of oncology. The paper lays the scientific, preclinical and clinical foundations for new applications of personalized medicine, specifically for patients with metastatic cancer.
Based on recent breakthroughs in pathotropic (or disease-seeking) tumor targeting technologies, a new generation of anti-cancer agents is currently being developed. Anti-cancer agents such as Rexin-G can be delivered by simple intravenous infusion, yet are designed to seek out and accumulate in primary and metastatic lesions that have spread throughout the body. Rexin-G is essentially a pathotropically targeted nanoparticle of genetic medicine that is guided by a proprietary targeting technology and is designed to deliver a killer-gene selectively to tumor cells and their associated (proliferative) blood supply. Representing the first and so far only targeted genetic medicine proven to be both safe and effective in the clinic, Rexin-G is commercially available in the Philippines -- for use in all solid tumors that are refractory to standard chemotherapy -- and is currently in clinical trials in the USA for several cancer indications.
Following the validation of its lead product in the clinic, Epeius Biotech has developed a second tumor-targeted anti-cancer agent, named Reximmune-C, designed to work in concert with Rexin-G by providing a localized cancer vaccination aimed at gaining additional tumor control. According to Dr. Erlinda M. Gordon, Medical Director of Epeius Biotech, "Based on the clear survival benefits of Rexin-G that we are seeing in our clinical trials, we felt obligated to advance this new product to provide an opportunity for personalized cancer vaccination in patients who may still be at risk for recurrence." Reximmune-C is a tumor-targeted gene delivery vector delivering an immune-stimulating cytokine gene directly to residual tumors, with the intent of generating a localized vaccination to encourage a lasting anti-tumor immunity. The IJO paper summarizes the preclinical studies, pilot clinical studies, and the elegant vector design engineering embodied in Reximmune-C, which make this clinical application possible.
About Epeius Biotechnologies
Epeius Biotechnologies Corporation is a privately held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the advancement of genetic medicine with the development and commercialization of its proprietary targeted delivery systems. To learn more about our pipeline of proprietary biotechnologies currently available for clinical development and/or new product development, visit us at http://www.epeiusbiotech.com.
For more information about Rexin-G, Reximmune-C, on-going clinical trials in the USA and abroad, and/or Epeius pathotropic (disease-seeking) gene delivery systems, contact Dr. Erlinda M. Gordon: egordon@epeiusbiotech.com.
This release was issued on behalf of the above organization by Send2Press(R), a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com
SOURCE Epeius Biotechnologies Corporation
http://www.epeiusbiotech.com


Here is the pubmed abstract about combining the somewhat established Rexin-G with Rex-immune C:

1: Int J Oncol. 2008 Oct;33(4):665-75. Links
Targeting metastatic cancer from the inside: a new generation of targeted gene delivery vectors enables personalized cancer vaccination in situ.

Gordon EM, Levy JP, Reed RA, Petchpud WN, Liu L, Wendler CB, Hall FL.
Oncology Research Unit, Epeius Biotechnologies Corporation, San Marino, CA 91108, USA. emgordon@epeiusbiotech.com
The advent of pathotropic (disease-seeking) targeting technologies, combined with advanced gene delivery vectors, provides a unique opportunity for the systemic delivery of immunomodulatory cytokine genes to remote sites of cancer metastasis. When injected intravenously, such pathotropic nanoparticles seek out and accumulate selectively at sites of tumor invasion and neo-angiogenesis, resulting in enhanced gene delivery, and thus cytokine production, within the tumor nodules. Used in conjunction with a primary tumoricidal agent (e.g., Rexin-G) that exposes tumor neoantigens, the tumor-targeted immunotherapy vector is intended to promote the recruitment and activation of host immune cells into the metastastic site(s), thereby initiating cancer immunization in situ. In this study, we examine the feasibility of cytokine gene delivery to cancerous lesions in vivo using intravenously administered pathotropically targeted nanoparticles bearing the gene encoding granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF; i.e., Reximmune-C). In vitro, transduction of target cancer cells with Reximmune-C resulted in the quantitative production of bioactive and immunoreactive GM-CSF protein. In tumor-bearing nude mice, intravenous infusions of Reximmune-C-induced GM-CSF production by transduced cancer cells and paracrine secretion of the cytokine within the tumor nodules, which promoted the recruitment of host mononuclear cells, including CD40+ B cells and CD86+ dendritic cells, into the tumors. With the first proofs of principle established in preclinical studies, we generated an optimized vector configuration for use in advanced clinical trial designs, and extended the feasibility studies to the clinic. Targeted delivery and localized expression of the GM-CSF transgene was confirmed in a patient with metastatic cancer, as was the recruitment of significant tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). Taken together, these studies provide the first demonstrations of cytokine gene delivery to cancerous lesions following intravenous administration and extend the applications of cancer immunization in vivo.